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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE GLORIES 



OP 



THE SACRED HEAET. 



THE GLORIES 



OF THE 



SACRED HEART. 



BY 



HENEY ^V>^ K^V^,J/la/yuYm^^ 

I CARDINAL ARCHBISHOP. C^ ^J/JW^^^^x^^vt^^fi- , 



ovTQi rh Oecoaau /cat deccOeu ets 0eJs. 

S. Qeeg. Naz. Adv. Apollin, 0pp. torn. ii. p. 256. 

Tts TOLyapovu oStws d(pocav iarlu, &>s \4y(:iv tw Kupty, anoara airh 
Tov (TcofiaTOs, 'iP'a ae rrpoaKwrjaco *, 
S. Athan. Ep. ad Adelphiunij s. 3, 0pp. torn. i. p. 913. 



New York: 

THE CATHOLIC PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 
No. 9 WARREN STREET. 



V\5 



TO 

THE STUDENTS 

OP 

THE SEMINARY OF S. THOMAS OF CANTERBURY, 

WITH AN EARNEST PRAYER 
THAT ALL WHO GO FORTH FROM ITS THRESHOLD 

MAY BE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS 

OF THE 

SACRED HEART OF JESUS, 

Sljb little §ook 

IS 
AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. 






PREFACE, 



The Sacred Heart is, as Simeon prophesied of 
Jesus Himself, ' Signum cui contradicetur.' Like 
the title of His Blessed Mother, who is in very 
truth ' Mother of God,' it has drawn to itself all 
the assaults of heresy. For it is a divine test of 
faith in the mystery of the Word made Flesh, 
'ut revelentur ex multis cordibus cogitationes.' 
Those who had trusted with a yearning hope 
that the faith of Englishmen, in the Incarnation 
at least, was firm and clear were saddened and 
silenced when the pilgrimage to Paray-le-Monial 
elicited from some of the highest sources of the 
established religion a profession of simple Nes- 
torianism. 

It w^as then that the first fifty pages in this 
book were published. Having been out of print 
for some time, they are now reprinted, as the 
doctrinal foundation of all that follows. 

The devotion of the Sacred Heart has two as- 



Yin PREFACE. 

jjects : the one as the centre of all dogma; the other 
as the source of the deepest devotion. In this lat- 
ter aspect it reveals to us the personal love of our 
Divine Redeemer towards each and every one for 
whom He died. It is a manifestation of His pity, 
tenderness, compassion, and mercy to sinners and 
to penitents. Nevertheless, its chief characteristic 
and its dominant note is His disappointment at the 
returns we make to Him for His love, and above 
all, His divine displeasure at the faults and sins ot 
those who are specially consecrated to His service. 
He seems to be sadly upbraidiug us with the 
three doubting questions which He put to Peter 
'Lovest thou Mef and to be looking upon us as 
He turned and looked on him, when he had thrice 
denied his Master. Into this part of the devotion 
of the Sacred Heart I have not ventured. It has 
been already treated so profusely by others, and by 
many of whom I have only to learn; it is in itself 
so deep and so intimately related to the personal 
life and mind of each, that I have always felt it 
better to use but few suggestive words rather than 
to draw out devotional acts, which to the writer 
are no doubt spontaneous, natural, and real, but to 
the reader may be a burden like Saul's armour to 
David, 



PREFACE. IX 

In the following pages, therefore, I have inten- 
tionally confined myself to the dogmatic side of the 
devotion ; and for the following reasons. I believe 
firmly that when divine truth is fully and duly 
apprehended it generates devotion ; that one cause 
of shallowness in the spiritual life is a superficial 
apprehension of the dogma of the Incarnation ; 
and that one divine purpose in the institution and 
diffusion of the devotion of the Sacred Heart, in 
these last times, is to reawaken in the minds of 
men the consciousness of their personal relation 
to a Divine Master. He has foretold the dimness 
and the coldness of these latter days : ' The Son 
of Man, w^hen He cometh, shall He find, think 
you, faith on the earth V^ ' Because iniquity hath 
abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold.''^ 
In that day the disciples of the Sacred Heart at 
least will ' know whom they have believed.' 

» S. Luke xTiii. 8. 2 g. Matt. xxiv. 12. 



CONTENTS. 



I. 

PAGE 

THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART . 3 

Tlie Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us ; and 
we saw His glory, the glory as it were of the Only- 
begotten of the Father. S. John i. 14. 

Appendix I. The Deification of the Sacred Humanity 32 
„ II. The Adoration of the Deified Humanity . 36 
,, III. The Adoration of the Sacred Heart . 41 

II. 

THE SACRED HEART GOD'S WAY OF LOVE . . 51 

No man hath seen God at any time : the only-he- 
gotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath 
declared Him. S. John i. 18. 

III. 
DOGMA THE SOURCE OF DEVOTION . ♦ • . 75 

You adore that which you know not. We adore that 
which we know. S. John iv. 22. 

IV. 

THE SCIENCE OF THE SACRED HEART . . .103 
That Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts : that 
being rooted and founded in charity, you may be able to 
comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and 



Xll CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

length and height and depth. To know also the charity 
of Christ, which surpasseth all understanding, that you 
may be filled unto all the fulness of God. Ephes. iii. 17-19. 

V. 
THE LAST WILL OF THE SACKED HEAKT . . 131 

With desire I have desired to eat this pasch with you 
before I suffer. S. Luke xxii. 15. 

yi. 

THE TEMPOKAL GLORY OF THE SACKED HEAET . 167 
His eyes shall see the King in His beaut5^ Isaias 
xxxiii. 17. 

YIL 
THE TE^NSFORMING POWER OF THE SACRED 

HEART 1911 

For we all, beholding, as with open face, the glory of 
the Lord, are transformed into the same image, from 
glory to glory, as by the Spii'it of the Lord. 2 Coe. iii. 18. 

VIII. 
THE SURE WAY OF LIKENESS TO THE SACRED 

HEART 219 

Take up My yoke upon you, and learn of Me ; for I 
am meek and lowly of heart, and you sha.ll find rest for 
your souls. S. Matt. xi. 29. 

IX. 
THE SIGNS OF THE SACRED HEART . . . 217 

If our heart reprehend us not, then we have confidence 
towards God. Dearly beloved, if our heart reprehend us, 
God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. 
1 S. John iii.. 20, 21. 

X. 
THE ETERNAL GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART . 275 
The glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to 
them. S. John xvii. 22. 



THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACBED 
HEAET, 



B 



NOTICE. 

As some of tlie Clergy, who by tlieir office are required 
to meet the objections of adversaries in respect to the 
Devotion of the Sacred Heart, raav not have ready access 
to certain books, a few notes ana an Appendix have been 
added to this Sermon. 



THE DIVINE GLOEY OF THE SACKED 
HEART. 



The Word v/as made flesh, and dwelt amongst us; and we saw 
His gioiy, the glory as it were of the Only- begotten of the 
Father. S. John i. 14. 

S. John, in bis first epistle, writes thus : ' Every 
spirit that dissolveth Jesus is not of God, and this 
is Antichrist, of whom you have heard, that he 
cometh, and he is abeady in the world. '^ The 
meaning of the words ' that dissolveth Jesus' is this : 
— whosoever denies that the Son of God is come in 
the flesh, that is, the truth of His Incarnation, or in 
any way destroys the distinction of His two natures, 
or the unity of His Divine Person, or denies that He 
is the Incarnate God, or refuses to Him divine wor- 
ship and the honour which is due to God alone — 
whosoever in these, or in any other way, destroys 
or denies the truth of the Incarnation, * dissolveth 

1 1 S, John iv. 3. 



4 THE DIVINE GLORY OF TUB SACKED HEART. 

Jesus/ and, whether he know it or not, is a di .:ipl3 
of Antichrist. 

Tlie Person of our Divine Lord has been, from 
the beginning, the centre of all the chief heresies 
that have tormented the Christian world. Like as 
i.i v.arfare, the hottest conflict is always ai'ound the 
];^r8on of the king, so, in the wdiole history of tho 
Christian Church, the keenest assaults of heresy and 
the most concentrated enmity of heretics have been 
directed against the Incarnation of the Son of G-od. 

In the beginning there were those who assailed 
Ilis manhood, and taught that it was a phantom. 
Then came Apollinaris, who taught that He had a 
human body but not a human soul. Then came Ari- 
ans, who affirmed that, if He had a Godhead, it was 
inferior to the Father. Then arose a cloud of semi- 
Arian heresies shading off in their distinctions, but 
all alike hi denying His true Godhead. Then came 
Kestorius, who affirmed that He had a human 
person : then Monophysites, wdio taught that His 
two natures were confused into one : then Mcno- 
theiites, who taught that He had only one will. For 
centuries the Church was tormented by a succession 
of heresies, all surrounding and assailing the person 
Oi the Incarnate V/ord, and all alike striving to 
* dissolve Jesus.' 



THE DIVI^'E GLORY OF THE SACKED HEART. 5 

And SO it has been in these later times. Three 
hundred years ago there was what was called a 
reformation of the Church of God. Among the 
agents of that reformation there were three who bore 
the most fatal sway. A hand friendly to them, 
thinking to glorify them in what he wrote, composed 
for one of them an epitaph, and it runs thus : 

' Tota jacet Babylon, destruxit tecta Lutherus, 
Calvinus muros, sed fundamenta Socinns.' 

' Babylon is utterly fallen. Luther pulled off the 
roof (denying the true doctrine of our Justification) ; 
' Calvin pulled down the walls' (denying the doctrine 
of the Sacraments) ; ' Socinus tore up the foun- 
dations' (because he denied the Incarnation of the 
Son of God, and therefore our redemption in His 
Precious Blood). These three agents of destruction 
have ever been at work all over what is called the 
Keformed Church to this day. They have been 
tormenting Poland and Switzerland and France — I 
grieve to say England in some part — and the New 
World, to which heresy has been carried together 
with Christianity. What is called Unitarianism — 
the denial of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, and 
the denial therefore of the proper Incarnation of the 
Word — is the legitimate result of the Eeformation. 
And this subtil heresy has spread widely in England, 



6 THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACKED HEART. 

and its coldness has spread still more widely than 
its formal errors. The Church which is estab- 
lished by law in England, so far as its books are 
concerned, is not indeed responsible for this. It 
retains the creeds, and it retains what is called the 
creed of S. Athanasius, in which the true and proper 
doctrine of the Incarnation is fully enunciated. A 
century ago a number of clergymen, who were at 
heart Unitarians, tried hard to get rid of the 
Athanasian Creed. In these days this effort has 
been renewed. Those who have authority have 
resisted the attempt, and I thank God for it. It is 
one more barrier in the way of the descent of religion 
— it is one more bond to hold the Christianity of 
England from hastening down the rapids w4iich have 
wrecked the faith of Germany and Switzerland. I 
speak, therefore, of the Established Church of 
England so far with hope, and I bear a true affection 
to multitudes of those who are in it. I believe them 
to be in good faith. If they knew the light of the 
truth, they would give their lives for it. They 
would not for the world speak a syllable to derogate 
from the glory of the Incarnation. Therefore let 
nothing I am about to say be understood as reflecting 
on those whom I honour and love, though they be 
in error and in separation from the Catholic Church. 



THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 7 

Let US, then, see what is the doctrine of the 
Incarnation, because, as the doctrine of the Incar- 
nation is the true test of the disciples of Jesus 
Christ, so the divine glory of the Sacred Heart is the 
true test of the doctrine of the Incarnation. 

' The Word,' that is the Eternal Son of God, 
' was made flesh' without ceasing to be God. From 
all eternity He is God. In time He took upon Him 
our nature and was made man. He * dwelt' in the 
midst of men, and men ' saw His glory,' and that 
glory was * the glory of the Only-begotten of the 
Father.' It was therefore a divine glory. These 
are the w^ords of the Apostle. How are we to 
understand this doctrine ? What is the Incar- 
nation ? 

1. The Athanasia-n Creed will tell us; it is assumjjtio 
humanitatis in Deum : the assumption of humanity 
into God. It is not the conversion of Godhead into 
flesh, nor the conversion of the flesh into Godhead. 
It is not the confusion of two natures into one. It 
is the assumption of human nature into the unity 
of the Divine Person of the Eternal Son of God. He 
took the nature of man ; He assumed it to Himself. 
And this assumption was the w^ork of the Three 
Persons of the Ever-blessed Trinity, for all the works 
of Omnipotence ad extra are the w^orks of the Father 



8 THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 

and of tlie Son and of the Holy Ghost. The Father 
and the Holy Ghost assisted in the divine work of 
the Incarnation, but it was the Son of God alone who 
invested Himself with our humanity. The Person 
of the Son became incarnate, and not the Person of 
the Father, nor the Person of the Holy Ghost. But, 
as the Son of God is God, it is God who became 
incarnate. And in that Incarnation He assumed a 
human soul. In the order of reason, though not in 
the order of time, the Word of God assumed a human 
soul, and thereby a human body ; a human soul like 
ours and a human body like ours in all its sinless 
infirmities; and therein He assumed the whole 
nature of man.^ 

- ' In wliicli wonderful conception Wisdom built lierself a house, 
and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and yet the 
Word was not converted or changed into flesh, that He should 
cease to he God who willed to he man ; but the Word was so made 
flesh, that not only the Word of God and the flesh of man were 
there, but also the rational soul of man : and this Whole should be 
called God because of Godhead, and man because of manhood. In 
whom, the Son of God, we believe that there were two natures, one 
of Godhead, another of manhood, which the one person of Christ 
so united in Himself, that the divinity could never be separate from 
the humanity, nor the humanity from the divinity : nor in saying 
that there are two natures in the Son do we make in Kim two 
Persons, lest, which God forbid, a quaternity should seem to enter 
into the Trinity. For God the Word did not assume the Person of 
a man, but the natui-e, and into the Eternal Person of His Godhead 
He assumed in time the substance of flesh ; so although we believe 
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost to be of one substance, 



THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. \) 

2. The Word of God, then, so became man or 
incarnate, that the Person of the Eternal Son v/as 
clothed in our humanity. The countenance that 
gazed upon the faces of men while ^ He dwelt 
amongst them' was the face of God ; and the hands 
that cleansed the leper were the hands of God ; the 
linger that opened the ear of the deaf was tliQ finger 
of God ; the feet that Mary kissed in her repentance 
were the feet of God ; the hands that were bound 
with cords w^ere the hands of God ; the hands and 
the feet that were nailed upon the cross were the 
hands and feet of God ; the Blood that was shed 
for the redemption of the w^orld was the Blood of 
God ; and the heart that w^as pierced upon the 
cross was the heart of God ; because the whole 
humanity which the Eternal Word assumed was the 
humanity of God. In that sacred humanity dwelt 
the Person of the Eternal Son of God in all the 



we yet do not say tliat the Yirgin Mary bore the unity of this 
Trinity, but the Son alone, who alone assumed our nature into the 
unity of His Person. It is to be believed also that the whole 
Trinity wrought the incarnation of the Son of God, because the 
works of the Trinity are inseparable. Yet it was the Son alone 
who assumed the form of a servant in the singularity of His Per- 
son, not in the unity of the Divine nature, in that which is proper 
to the Son, not in that which is common to the Trinity : which 
form was fitted to Him in the unity of His Person, that is, that 
the Son of God and the Son of man should be one Christ.' Sym- 
bolum Fidei Concilii Toletani, II., a.d. 675. 



10 TIIL DIVINE GLOUY OF THE SACHED HEART. 

fulness of His Godhead. The Son of God was not 
united to our manhood as the Holy Spirit of God was 
united to the prophets. S. Paul, in the first verse 
of the first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, ex- 
pressly says, that * God, who at sundry times and in 
divers manners spoke in times past to the fathers by 
the prophets, last of all in these days hath spoken to 
us by His Son;'^ that is, by His Incarnate Son. 
Neither was the Godhead of the Son united to His 
manhood like as God is united to us. God is united 
to the soul and dwells in the soul by the indwelling 
of the Holy Ghost, but we are not God Incarnate. 
The Saints of God are perfectly united to Him and 
He dwells in them, but they are not the Incarnation 
of God. The first Adam before the fall was a man 
united with God, but not God manifest in the flesh. 
His Blessed and Immaculate Mother, though she was 
more closely united to Him than any other creature, 
because of her very substance the Son of God took 
the substance of our humanity and united it to His 
own Divine Person, yet she is not incarnate God. 
The hypostatic union, as it is called — the union of 
Godhead and manhood in one person — is distinct 
from this and beyond all this. The whole Godhead 
dwelt in Jesus, as S. Paul says, in all its fulness 

■' Heb. i. 1. 



THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 11 

^ corporally/'* that is, in the body. The plenitude of 
Godhead dwells in the body of His humanity. 

3. But, once more, there were in Jesus two 
distinct and perfect natures — neither changed nor 
confounded. It is impossible that the divine nature 
should become the human, or that the human should 
become the divine : for eternity and infinity cannot be 
communicated to the creature ; neither can eternity 
or infinity be put off or circumscribed to the out- 
line and stature of the creature. The two natures 
were perfectly distinct, without diminution or con- 
fusion. They were so united that in Christ there 
were tw^o intelligences. There was the divine in- 
telligence of the Son of God, which adequately con- 
templates Himself and all things possible to His 
almighty power. There was also a human intelli- 
gence, in which w^as all knowledge of which the finite 
intelligence of man is capable. And, as there were 
two intelligences, so I may say there were also two -¥ 
hearts; for the Holy Ghost, writing of the perfections 
of God, has used the language of man. In the 
book of Genesis w^e read : ^ That when the Lord beheld 
the wickedness of man upon earth He was touched 
with sorrow of heart ;'^ and when the Holy Ghost 
w^ould describe the perfections of David, and the love 

^ Col. ii. 9, (Tufj.uTiKws. ^ Gen. vi. 5, 6. 



12 THE DIVINE GLOPcY OF THE SACRED HEART. 

that God had for him, He described him as *a man 
after Grod's own heart. '^ The love and the sanctity of 
God are here spoken of under the symbol of a heart. 
And this, I may say, is the eternal heart of God. 
Btit the heart of Jesus is a heart of flesh — a heart 
taken from the substance of His Blessed Mother 
— a symbol, indeed, because it best symbolises and 
manifests the eternal love of God ; but it is more than 
this, it is also a reality. And that human heart of 
Jesus was, in the hypostatic union, united with the 
eternal charity and sanctity of God — all the ardour of 
the eternal love was there, and all the fervour and all 
the tenderness of our humanity was there. And as 
He had two hearts, He had also two wdlls.^ There w^as 
in Him from all eternity the divine will, w^hich is the 
love and wisdom of God acting in the absolute har- 
mony of their perfections. And there v/as also a 
human will like our own — the spring and origin of 
all our actions. And these two wills v»^ere so per- 
fectly conformed to each other — like two notes in 
harmony — so identical and yet so distinct, that there 

^ Acts xiii. 22. 

' ' V/lierefore, as we confess Him to have two natures, that is 
Godliead and Manhood, neither confounded, nor divided, nor inter- 
changed; so the rule of piety teaches us that He, one and the 
same, our Lord Jesus Christ, had also two natural wills and two 
natural operations, as being perfect God and perfect man.' Epistola 
Agathonis et Eomaiue Sijnodi ad Concil. (Ecum. VI, 



THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 13 

never was, and never could be, a variation or a shadow 
of conflict between them.^ The Son of God from all 
eternity willed this great mystery of His Incarnation ; 
and in time, by the spirit of prophecy, He said, ' In the 
head of the book it is written of Me — Ecce venio — 
Behold, I come to do Thy Will, God.'^ When He 
came into the world He said, ' My meat is to do the 

^ ' And that in Him were two natui'al wills or volitions, and two 
natural operations without division, or change, or separation, or 
confusion, .... and two natural wills not contrary, God forbid, as 
impious heretics have said, but His human will subjected to His 
Divine and Almighty Will without resistance or reluctance. For 
the will of the flesh must needs be moved and subjected to His 
Divine will, according to the doctrine of Athanasius, who was most 
wise : for as His flesh is called and is the flesh of God (capl rod 
0eow), so also the natural will of His flesh is called and is the 
will, of God, according to His own declaration, " I came down from 
heaven, not that I should do My own will, but the will of Him that 
sent Me," that is, the Father. He called the will of the flesh His 
own Will, as also His flesh became His own ; for as the most holy 
and spotless and living flesh being deified was not destroyed, but 
remained in its own state and kind, so also His human will being 
deified was not destroyed, but was rather preserved, according to 
the saying of Gregory Theologus : "For His wiU, which is under- 
stood, in the Saviour is not contrary to God, but is wholly deified. 
We adore also two natural operations without division, without 
change, without separation, without confusion in Him our Lord 
Jesus Christ, our true God, that is, the divine operation and the 
human operation ; as the divine teacher Leo most clearly asserted, 
for each nature wrought that which was proper to itself in union 
with the other ; the Word, that is, operating that which is of the 
Word, and the body accomplishing that which is of the body." * 
Dejinitio Synodi VI. Const. III. a.d. 680. 

^ Ps. xxxix. 8. 



14 THE DIVINE GLOHY OF THE SACRED HEART. 

will of Him that sent Me.'^^ In His agony in the 
garden He said, ^ Father, if it be possible, let this 
chalice pass from Me ; nevertheless not My will, but 
Thine be done.'^^ There was then no conflict in His 
human will. It was in perfect conformity with the 
divine. And upon the cross He offered Himself; 
as the prophet Isaias wrote, * Oblatus est quia ipse 
voluit^^ — He offered Himself because He willed it.' 
Of His own will He gave up the Ghost : * Father, 
into Thy hands I commend My Spirit. '^^ And these 
free acts of our Divine Redeemer had an infinite 
merit. It was the free oblation of the life and of the 
Blood of God that redeemed the world. 

4. ,But though He had two natures, two intelli- 
gences, two hearts, and two wills perfect and distinct, 
yet there was but one agent. All His actions 
were divine and human, because the agent is both 
God and man. His actions are therefore called 
theandric or delviriles, because they are the actions 
of God and man. There is but one agent, because 
there is but one person ; and that one person is the 
Person of the Eternal Word. In the Incarnate Son 
there is no human personality, neither could there 
be. For a person is a rational nature, complete and 

»o S. John iv. U, »» S. Mark xiv. 36. 

1- Isaias liii. 7. ^^ S. Luke xxiii. 46, 



THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 15 

perfect, subsisting in itself, independent of all others. 
The Eternal Son of God is a person complete and 
perfect in Himself; therefore a human person in 
Jesus there could not be.^^ If there had been a 
human person, Jesus could not have been God In- 
carnate. He might have been the son of a woman, 
and therefore the son of man, but He would not have 
been the Incarnate God. And it was impossible 
that there should be confusion in His personality, 
for, as I said before, a human person cannot become 
a divine person ; because he cannot cease to be 
finite ; and a divine person cannot become a human 
person, because he cannot cease to be infinite. 
Two persons cannot coexist without real distinction. 
And if there had been a human personality, Mary would 
have been, as Nestorius said. Mother of Christ, not 
Mother of God. Therefore, the Person of the Eternal 
Son was the sole and only personality in our Ee- 
deemer. In assuming our humanity, there was never 
a moment of time when that human nature existed 



** * Uniri hypostatice Deum et hominem, nihil esse aliud quam 
naturam humanam non habere propriam subsistentiam, sed as- 
sumptam esse a Verbo setemo ad ipsam Verbi subsistentiam.' 
Bellarm. De Incarn, lib. iii. c. viii. 3. 

* Hoc est, unionem hypostaticam consistere in communicatione 
subsistentiaB Verbi non in communicatione attributorum Deitatis.* 
Ibid. B. 15. 



16 THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACKED HEART. 

separate from or independent of the personality of 
the Eternal Son of God. The act of the Incarnation 
was an instantaneous act of almighty power. The 
Eternal Son clothed His Person with our manhood, 
and thereby anticipated all human personality by His 
own. If that human nature had ever for one moment 
subsisted independently, it would have had its own 
personality. But it was never for one moment con- 
ceived independent ; and cannot, even in thought, 
be separated from the Person of the Eternal Son 
without ceasing to be the Humanity of God. The 
absence of human personality in the Incarnation of 
the Son is no imperfection of the Sacred Humanity. 
It is its highest perfection. Our human nature was 
elevated ; it was perfected with a perfection above 
its own, and was thereby lifted above the order of 
creation. It was assumed into immediate union with 
a divine Person, and because it was assumed into the 
unity of a divine Person it was in Him united to the 
Divine Nature, and thereby deified. It became the 
flesh of God — it became from that moment unto all 
eternity the flesh of God, because those two natures 
subsisting in the Eternal Word can never be divided. 
And at the right hand of God there sits the Incarnate 
Son ; God clothed in our humanity for ever. As, 
then, there never was a moment when His sacred 



THE DIYIN3 GLOr.Y OF THE SACKED HEART. 17 

humanity was separated from the Person of tho 

Eternal Son, so there never shall be. 

5. Lastly, as I have said, the humanity of Jesus, 

being the humanity of God, was thereby ipso facto, 

CO ipso, in the very moment of the Incarnation, by 

necessity, deified, for it became the flesh or the 

humanity of God.^^ Now there are two senses in 

15 S. Athanasius says : * God Himself was made Flesh that His 
Flesh might be made God the Word.' Lib. de Human. Natura 
Suscepta. sect. 3, torn. ii. p. 873, ed. Ben. 

* Therefore he assumed a human and ingenerate body that, 
having renewed it as its maker, He might make it God,' i.e. 
* deify it.' Orat. II. contra Arianos, 70, tom. ii. p. 537. 

' Though the Flesh regarded in itself be a part of things created, 
yet it has been made the Body of God.' Ep. ad Adelphium, sect. 3, 
iS*. Ath. 0pp. tom. ii. p. 912. 

' He deified that which He put on.' Orat. contra Arianos, i. s. 7. 

* The Lord when made man for us, and bearing a body, was no 
less God, .... but (He) rather deified it.' Ep. in Defence oj the 
Nicene Creed, sect. 3. 

* For He received it as far as man's nature was exalted ; which 
exaltation was its being deified.' Orat. I. contra Arianos, s. 45. 

' Being God, He has taken to Him the flesh, and being in the 
flesh makes the flesh God, BeoTroieT; i.e. He deifies it.' Orat. III. 
contra Arianos, sect. 38. 

S. Cyril of Alexandria says : * We never say that the flesh of 
the Word was made divinity, but divine, forasmuch as it was His 
own (flesh). For if the flesh of man is called human, what hinders 
our calling that (flesh) divine which is the flesh of God the Word ? 
Why then mock and revile the apotheosis of that holy flesh which 
we rightly understand to be deification?' S. Cyrill. adv. Nest. ii. 
8, tom. vi. p. 51. 

Again he says : * Therefore we assert the Body of Christ to be 
divine ; since it is the Body of God, adorned with inefi'able glory, 
incorruptible, holy, life-giving ; but that it has been changed int 

C 



18 THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 

which the Fathers and theologians of the Church in 
speaking of Jesus use the word 'deified.' The one is 
that which I have ah-eady affirmed ; and that is the 
proper, definite, and original sense of the word, 
namely, that the humanity which Jesus assumed is 
the humanity of God Himself. The other sense is, 
that being the humanity of God, it was altogether 
pervaded by the presence and by the communicable 
perfections of God. The Fathers liken it to the iron 
w^hich, glowing with fire, is pervaded by the nature of 
fire ; so the whole humanity of Jesus was pervaded 
by the personal presence and sanctity of the Son of 



the nature of deity neither any of the holy Fathers either thought 
or said ; nor do we so think.' S. Cyrill. torn. v. p. 139. 

S. John Damascene also writes as follows : ' The Word Him- 
self was made flesh, conceived of a Virgin and manifested to be 
God with the nature He assumed, which was already deified by 
Him in the moment when it began to exist. So that there were 
three things simultaneous — "Assumption, Existence, Deification." * 
He calls the Blessed Virgin Mother of God, ' propter deificationem 
humanitatis.' S. Joan. Damasc. De Fide OrtJiodoxa^ iii. 12. 

S. Thomas says (Part III. q. ii. art. 1) : 

* As S. John Damascene says: " The Divine Nature is said to 
be incarnate because it is j)ersonally [hypostatlce) united to the flesh, 
not that it is converted into flesh. In like manner the flesh is said 
to be deified (as he also says), not by conversion, but by union 
with the Word, without change in its natural properties, so that 
the flesh is understood to be deified because it is made the flesh of 
God the Word, not because it is made (to be) God." ' 

Also in q. xvi. art. 3, S. Thomas says : 

'And in this manner the human nature is not called essentially 



THE DIVINE GLOUY OF THE SACRED HEART. 19 

God. It Lad, as the Fathers say, a twofold unction, 
whereby He was anointed as the Christ. It has the 
uncreated sanctity of the Son, and the created sanc- 
tification of the Holy Ghost. But this is a secondary 
sense derived from the true and proper meaning of 
the word ^ deify,' which is that our humanity in Him 
became the humanity of God. 

Now, if any man does not hold this truth, he 
does not hold the doctrine of the Incarnation. He 
may think he does. He may intend to do so. He 
may deceive himself; he may deceive others. But 
he does not hold the doctrine of the Incarnation as 



God (Deus), but deified; not indeed by conversion of it into the 
divine nature, but bj union with the divine nature in one Per- 
son, as is evident from Damascene {De Fide Orthod. lib. iii. c. xi. 
xiii.).' 

And again (q. xvi. art. 5), S. Thomas says : 

' Both natures in Christ are united to each other in the Person, 
by reason of which union the divine nature is said to be incarnate, 
and the human nature to be deified.' 

De Lugo teaches as follows : 

* Though,' he says, ' the Deity be not united immediately with 
the humanity, but only mediately [i.e. mediante Persona) , yet this 
is enough, that it should truly deify the humanity. For the Deity 
alone, and not the Personality, is {forma deificans) that which 
deifies the humanity.' De Incarn. disp. xvi. sect. 1, 39. 

The sixth (Ecumenical Council says: * As His holy spotless 
animate flesh {i.e. with the soul) was not destroyed by being deified, 
but remained in its own state and nature, so also His human will 
being deified was not destroyed.' This use, then, of the term 
» deify'' is consecrated in a definition of faith. 



20 THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 

delivered by the Holy Ghost, as taught to the world 
by the Apostles, as defined by the Church of God, 
and as it is the doctrine of divine and Catholic Faith 
necessary to all who hope for salvation. But if the 
Sacred Humanity be the humanity of God, then it is 
invested with all the divine glories. As our Lord 
Himself has said, 'And now, Father, glorify Me, with 
the glory that I had with Thee before the world was.'^^ 
'Before the world was.' What, then, is this glory 
but the divine ? What was the glory of Jesus before 
the world was, but the glory which He had with 
the Father as the Eternal Word? Therefore, the 
humanity of Jesus is glorified with the divine glory in 
all its fulness. He was exalted to the right hand of 
God to sit in the glory of the Father^ to be adored 
and worshipped in one divine glory with the Father 
and the Holy Ghost. 

He is the Divine High-Priest by whom the world 
is redeemed. If the body on the cross had not been 
the body of God, God could not have given His life for 
us. But S. John writes by the Holy Ghost, 'In this 
we have known the charity of God, because He hath 
laid down His life for us.'^^ What life did God lay 
down upon the cross, if the sacred humanity and the 
life thereof was not the life of God ? And if the Blood 

i« 1 S. John xvii. 5. i7 ibid. iU. 16. 



THE DIVINE GLORY OT THE SACRED HEART. 21 

that was slied on the cross was not the Blood of God, 
how was the w^orld redeemed ? Your blood and my 
blood, even though w^e w^ere saints, would not redeem 
even ourselves from our own sins, much less redeem 
the w^orld. What, then, is the Blood which redeemed 
the world? "What is the Blood which is offered for 
ever for us before the mercy-seat in the glory of the 
Father ? It is the Precious Blood of God the Son, 
the Eternal Word Incarnate. And at the right 
hand of the Eternal Father He offers perpetually 
His own Divine and Adorable Blood, which is the 
Blood of God, for the propitiation of the sin of the 
world. 

Therefore He is also to be worshipped as the 
Judge who shall judge the living and the dead. He 
who wdll come again is to be adored as the Creator 
and Eedeemer and Judge of all mankind. And He 
sits there in all the royalties of His Father's Kingdom. 
'All powder in heaven and on earth is given unto Me;' 
and He is adored there both as God and man in the 
glory of the Ever-blessed Trinity. And as He is to be 
adored with divine w^orship at the right hand of the 
Father, so He is to be adored upon the altar present 
in the Blessed Sacrament. And wheresoever He is 
adored in heaven or on earth. His Sacred Heart is 
adored with divine worship. For the Sacred Heart 



22 THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART, 

is the Heart of God the Son, the true and proper 
Object of divine adoration and of divine worship. 
If this be not so, what is it that we say, day by day, 
at the altar, what have we been saying now in the 
' Gloria in excelsis :' ' Thou only art holy, Thou 
only art the Lord, Thou only, Christ Jesus, art 
most high in the glory of God the Father'? 'For 
which cause God also hath exalted Him, and hath 
given Him a name which is above all names ; that 
in the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of those 
that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth : 
and that every tongue should confess that the Lord 
Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.'^^ 
What is this worship but divine worship ? Wliat is 
this glory but divine glory ? What is this but the 
very words of the Evangelist ? — ' The W^ord was made 
flesh, and dwelt among us ; and we saw His glory, 
the glory as it were of the Only-begotten of the 
Father' in the depths and the splendours of the un- 
created light of the Father and of the Son and of the 
Holy Ghost. 

I have drawn out this doctrine, so far as time 
permits, in greater fulness, not without a purpose. 
At the outset I said that the doctrine of the Incar- 
nation is the test of the true disciples of Jesus 

16 Phil. ii. 9-11. 



THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 23 

Christ. The Apostles who conversed with Him, and 
then preached His Incarnation to the world, were the 
witnesses that God was come in the flesh. They 
declared His divine glory. The test of their true 
discipleship was their fidelity to this truth, which is 
His very Person. So is it with us. And as the 
Incarnation is the test of our true discipleship, the 
divine worship and glory of the Sacred Heart is the 
test of our true faith in the doctrine of the Incarna- 
tion. Any man who denies this, or even a shadow 
of its perfect truth — any man who, by subtil distinc- 
tions, attempts to deprive the Sacred Heart of divine 
worship and glory — thereby convicts himself of 
heresy.-^^ Whether it be only material or whether it 



^^ ' But, you say again, we do not give adoration to a creature. 
O, fools, why do you not understand that the body of the Lord 
which was made does not receive the adoration of a creature, for 
it is become the body of the uncreated Word, and to Him whose 
body it is become you offer your worship. It is therefore adored 
as it ought to be. and it is divinely adored, for the Word is God, 
whose own body it is. Wherefore when the women approached 
the Lord, He hindered them, and said, " Touch Me not, for I am 
not yet ascended to My Father." .... And yet approaching Him 
they held His feet, and adored Him. They held the feet and 
adored God, feet having bones and flesh that might be touched, but 
being the feet of God they adored God : and, in another place, the 
Lord said, " Touch Me, and see, that a spirit hath not flesh and 
bones, as ye see Me to have." ' S, Athanasii contra Apollin, lib. i. 
sect. 6, tom. i. p. 926, ed. Bened. 

Again he says : ' Who is there so mad as to say, " Stand apart 



21 THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 

be formal heresy, I do not say, for I cannot read the 
heart ; but a heretic such man is, for he denies a di- 
vine truth, and that the highest truth in the hierarchy 
of faith. As it was after the time of the Council of 
Ephesus, when the title * Mother of God' was the test 
of the true doctrine of the faith, and a confession that 
in Jesus there was one only person and that person 
divine, so that any man who refused to give to the 
Mother of Jesus the title of Mother of God thereby 
convicted himself of heresy, so is it now, in these 
days, with the worship of the Sacred Heart. Any 
man who denies to the Sacred Heart divine glory 
and divine worship, thereby convicts himself of 
heresy. And do not think that this is a heresy of the 
imagination, verbal and unreal. No, it is here, float- 
ing round about in the air we breathe. It pervades 
multitudes who profess to believe in the Incarnation. 
The Jansenists, two centuries ago, set the example on 



from the body, tliat I may worship thee." * Ejp. ad AdeJpliium, 
sect. 3, torn, i, p. 913. 

S. Thomas (p. iii. q. xxv. art. 1) : * Is the Divinity of Christ and 
His Humanity to be adored by one and the same adoration ?' 

He quotes the Fifth General Council, canon ix., and affirms that 
the Divinity and Humanity of Christ are to be adored vrith one and 
the same adoration. 

In art. 2 he asks whether the Humanity of Christ is to be adored 
with the adoration of latria. He answers that the Humanity of 
Christ is to be adored wi^h latria. 



THE DIVINE GLOEY OF THE SACRED HEART. 25 

the first rise of the devotion of the Sacred Heart. 
They accused those who adored it of separating the 
Sacred Humanity. For manifold errors they were 
condemned by the Bull Unigenitiis, and exist no 
longer. Afterwards the Synod of Pistoia, following 
in their footsteps, accused those who adored the 
Sacred Heart of separating the human nature of 
Jesus from the divine. They, too, were condemned 
by the Bull Auctorem Fidei, for uttering on this head 
an opinion 'false, scandalous, and injurious' to those 
who adore the Sacred Heart of Jesus. They, too, 
have passed away. In these days we have heard 
the same things once more. Old errors come up 
again, and spread from mouth to mouth. They are 
at this moment busv and malicious. Not in the 
hearts of the great English people ; I bear them 
witness. The last time I spoke to you on this sub- 
ject was to give a benediction to those who went 
on a pilgrimage of devotion in honour of the Sacred 
Heart ; and I bear honourable witness to the public 
opinion of England, that though there were many 
strange sounds and some uncouth and sharp sayings 
from the tongues and the pens of men, yet in the 
main the utterance of the English mind, as we read 
it daily, was full, perhaps, of a perplexed wonder, 
but also of a true reverence, partly out of respect for 



26 THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 

honest men fearless in confessing their faith, partly 
out of a manly reverence for a sacred subject, and, 
perhaps, too, out of a consciousness half-suppressed 
that they did not comprehend it as fully as they 
ought. I have seen nothing that has impressed me 
more with a belief of the religious character of the 
English people than the way in which, during those 
days, I may say weeks, this sacred subject was handled 
in daily discussion. For the most part it was 
treated with respect. Here and there, indeed, 
forked lightnings came through the clouds of mental 
darkness, and certain sounds of ignorance and of 
impiety. But they w^ere not enough to qualify what 
I have said. What I add, therefore, I confine to a 
handful of individuals. They are few in number and 
of little power, but of a strange malice. It is indeed 
very strange, brethren, that there should be men who 
delight in evil, who exult over a heresy whensoever 
they hope they can find it. It is to them a revel if 
they can impute error or evil to what they call the 
Roman Church. A Catholic delights in the truth, 
and every particle of truth that he can find in any 
of those who are separated from the Church he 
accepts with joy. He blesses God for it. He has 
so much the more in those who are separated from 
him. He is so much the more united to them, 



THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 27 

because they are more united to the truth. Not so 
those who are out both of truth and of charity. 
They will find evil if they can with joy, and impute 
it where it cannot be found. But the man that 
rejoices in the hope that any fellow Christian, to 
say nothing of any Christian teacher, should depart 
even a hair's-breadth from the truth, such a man is 
doing the works of one whom he would not acknow- 
ledge to be his father. His inspiration is not of 
God. Such malice is not the malice of mere na- 
ture. There remains but one other source of in- 
spiration. 

Therefore, brethren, if you are called * worshippers 
of men,' or ^worshippers of flesh,' which are the two 
titles given by the Arians and the Nestorians to the 
Catholics of old, do not be alarmed. We have been 
called harder things than these. We have been 
called ^ worshippers of bread,' because we adore 
Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and w^e have been 
called * worshippers of Mary,' though the very 
syllables convict our modern Nestorians of false 
witness. They well know that no one gives divine 
honour to the Mother of God ; but every true 
disciple of Jesus gives divine worship to the Sa- 
cred Heart of her Son. Do not be afraid, then, if 
you are assailed for His sake. Is it not a grace ? 



28 THE DIVINE GLORY OF TKE SACRED HEART. 

Is it not a dignity? Is it not a happiness to be 
reviled for the divine worship of the Sacred Heart ? 
It will not harm you. It will not divide you from 
Him. It will only bind you closer to Him and Him 
to you. Could you be irritated by an accusation so 
grateful to Him ? No ; rather thank God for it. 
' If you be reproached for the name of Christ, you 
shall be blessed : for that v/hich is of the honour, 
glory, and power of God, and that which is of His 
Spirit, resteth upon you.^- The Sacred Heart will 
be to you a covert from the storm and a shelter 
from the wind, and as * rivers of water in drought, 
and as the shadow of a rock standing out in a desert 
land.'^^ Enter, then, into the Sacred Heart, and all 
these things will pass by you as the harmless wind. 

One word more I must say before I conclude. 
It is a great glory to the Catholic Church in England 
to stand out almost alone in the broad light of day, 
and in the face of the English people, as the witness 
for the full and explicit faith of the Incarnation ; as 
the witness for the Sacred Heart of Jesus ; as the 
witness of its love and of its tenderness, and of the 
one Name by which alone we can be saved. To be 
the full, explicit, and inflexible witness for all these 
divine things— for the Person of Jesus, for the sole 
2» 1 S, Peter iv. 4. ^^ Isaias xxxii. 2. 



THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 29 

divine personality of the Incarnate Son, for the dignity 
of His Immaculate Mother, and for the sympathy and 
tenderness of His Sacred Heart — to be the witness 
for all this is a joy and a glory. England has to 
make a reparation. The doctrine of the Incarnation, 
as I have said, is indeed in the heart of the English 
people. But it is gravely threatened, and in every 
generation that passes I fear its light is becoming 
fainter and fainter, and the faith of men in that 
mystery is growing less and less. And why? 
Because the divine defences of that truth have been 
ruined in England. There are two outworks of the 
faith of the Incarnation. Like as we see in w^arfare, 
the outworks which defend the citadel must be taken 
before the citadel can be assailed. So it is with the 
Faith. The two outworks which protect the Incar- 
nation are the worship or devotion which we give to 
the Blessed Mother of God and the divine adoration 
of Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament. Three hundred 
years ago the very name of the Mother of God was 
cast out. Her chapels were ruined, her festivals 
w^ere abolished, her rosary was taken from her 
children. Every memorial of her was effaced. The 
little ones of England who had been trained up till 
then with her beads in their hands were thencefor- 
ward to knov/ nothing' of her as their Mother. Too 



30 THE DIVINE GLOP.Y OF THE SACRED HEART. 

effectually has this work been done. But more than 
this : the altars were pulled down. The very name 
of sacrifice was effaced. The festivals in honour of 
the Blessed Sacrament were abolished. The word 
priest — everything that told of the Holy Mass, 
everything that manifested the presence of Jesus on 
the altar, the tabernacle and the light that burnt 
before it — all these things were taken away. And 
when these two outworks were destroj^ed, the citadel 
itself was assailed. The doctrine of the Incarnation 
has been battered ever since, and to this day its light 
has been fading in England. 

And therefore I believe that the work of grace 
which God has revived in the midst of us in these 
days is a providential warning. I believe that this 
restoration of the light of the Sacred Heart, come 
whence it may, and I know not whence it came, 
has been ordained to revive with an intense fervour 
and with a sevenfold ardour our devotion to the 
Person, the Name, the Passion of our Divine 
Eedeemer. It is come to restore the faith of 
England — first, in the Incarnation ; secondly, in the 
presence of Jesus upon the altar ; thirdly, in a joyful 
recognition that the title of Mother of God is truly 
the right of her who bore into this w^orld the Divine 
Infant, G6d the Son Incarnate. 



THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SxVCRED HEART. 31 

A great grace, then, has been poured out upon 
us and upon the people of England, and there will 
come a time, hastened by these things, when thou- 
sands and ten thousands of hearts will return again 
to the true Mother of their faith. I believe that in 
the confusions we hear around us the announcement 
may be heard that the light of the Incarnation will 
spread once more over England in renewed splendours 
from sea to sea. 

But, dear brethren, in the midst of this visitation 
of Grace let us not be without a holy fear. If Jesus 
be now among us, He has come to put us on our 
trial : ' His . fan is in His hand, and He will 
thoroughly purge His floor, and gather the wheat 
into His garner, and the chaff He will burn up with 
unquenchable fire.'^^ 

22 S. Matt. iii. 12. 



APPENDIX I. 

THE DEIFICATION OF THE SACRED HUMANITY. 

Though the proofs from Fathers, Schoolmen, Theo- 
logians, and Councils already given in the notes be 
fully sufficient, the following may be of use, as they 
show how the doctrine and terminology of the Dei- 
fication of the Sacred Humanity pervades Theology. 

Petavius says : ^ That humanity is assumed by 
God is nothing else but that it is deified.'^ 

Franzelin also writes : ' In the human nature. 
Incarnation is the being so united that the humanity 
subsists not in itself but as a nature of the Word in 
the Word, which is properly that which is called by 
the Fathers the deification of the human nature.'^ 

S. John Damascene writes as follows : 

' It is necessary, then, that w^e should know that 
the flesh of the Lord is deified, and, moreover, is 
called God and becomes God, as Gregory Theologus 
says (speaking of the two natures), ^^ of which one 
deified and the other was deified," and I am bold to 
say, is partaker of the same deity. The Anoiuter 

1 Petav. de Incarn. Kb. iv. c. ix, 

2 De Verho Incarn. p. 200. 



THE DIVINE GLOnY OF THE SACRED IIEAKT. 33 

became man, and the Anointed, God ; and this not 
by change of nature, but according to the economic, 
that is, the hypostatic union, by which (humanity) 
was indissolubly united with God the Word, and 
the two natures mutually embraced each other, as wo 
say of fire when it pervades iron : for as we confess 
the incarnation (of God) without change or conver- 
sion, so also we affirm of the deification of the flesh. 
For neither because the Word was made flesh did it 
pass beyond the bounds of its own Godhead, nor ol 
its own proper and divine perfections ; nor, indeed, 
did the deified flesh depart from its own nature or 
from its natural properties : for after their union 
the natures were unconfounded and the properties of 
each w^ere inviolate : but the flesh of the Lord was 
enriched with divine operations by reason of its most 
pure hypostatic union wdth the Word, for the flesh 
by no means forfeited its natural properties, nor from 
its own energy did it exercise divine operations, but 
through the Word who was united with it, and through 
it manifesting His own power. For the glov/ing iron 
does not possess the power of burning by reason of 
its own nature, but by reason of its union with fire. 

* For the flesh, which was mortal in itself, was 
life-giving by reason of its hypostatic union wdth the 
Word. In like manner we affirm the deification of 

D 



34 THE DIVINE GLOHY OF THE SACRED HEART. 

the will, not as if its natural movement were changerl, 
but because it was united to the Divine and Almighty 
Will, and became the Will of God made man. Where- 
fore, when it would conceal itself it w^as not able of 
itself : forasmuch as the Word of God was pleased to 
manifest the infirmity of the human wdll truly exist- 
ing in Himself; and again by His Will He cleansed 
the leper by reason of the union of the (human) 
with the divine. We must know, then, that the 
deification of the nature and of the will declares 
emphatically and demonstratively the two natures 
and the two wills, as the glowing of fire does not 
change the nature of that which is heated by it into 
the nature of fire, but manifests both that which is 
ignited, and that which ignites, and shows them to 
be not one but two, so the deification does not make 
up one compound nature but contains the two (na- 
tures), and the hypostatic union : for Gregory Theo- 
logus declares one of the tw^o natures deifies and the 
other is deified, for in saying ''of which" and "the 
one and the other," he demonstrates that they are 
two.'^ 

De Lugo writes thus : ' The Deity is the same in 
the Father and the Son, yet it is not the Father that 

2 De Fide Orthod, lib. iii. c. xvii. torn. i. p. 239. -See also 
lib. id. c. xii. p. 224, and lib. iy. c. xviii. 



THE DIVINE GLOr.Y OF THE SACRED HEART. 35 

formally deifies or sanctifies the humanity, but the 
Son, because the Deity as it is in the Son, and not 
as it is in the Father, has the condition necessary for 
that efi'ect, that is to say, the Subsistence (hypostasis) 
of the Son, by means of icJtich it is united to the 
humanity.'^ 

De Lugo continues : ' The Personality is not 
(forma deificans) that "which deifies, nevertheless the 
Deity formally deifies the humanity by means of the 
Personality {mediante personalitate), not that this is 
the cause of deification, but because it is the con- 
dition necessary to this effect, namely, that the Deity 
may deify (the humanity).'^ 

The humanity subsisting in the hypostatic union 
is therefore deified mediately, that is by union with 
the Divine Nature. 

He argues farther: *We cannot conceive the 
Humanity of Christ as united to the "Word, or, as 
having union with the Word, without (eo ipso) by 
that conception itself predicating that the Humanity 
is denominated and deified by the Word : for ivhat 
else is union tvith the Word, hut being informed, as I 
may say, or deified by the Word.'^ 

* De Incarn. dis. xvi. sect. ii. 30. * lb. 48. 

« lb. s. 48. So also in s. 49. 



86 THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 

APPENDIX II. 

THE ADORATION OF THE DEIFIED HUMANITY. 

The passages given already in the note to pages 
23-4 are enough to show that the Catholic Church in 
adoring the Incarnate Word with the divine worship 
of latria has from the beginning consciously and dis- 
tinctly regarded the Deified Humanity as partaking 
in that one Divine Adoration. 

The three following passages of Holy Scripture 
are used commonly by the Fathers as proof : 

1. * When He bringeth in the First-begotten into 
the world He saith : And let all the angels of God 
adore Him' — that is, the Incarnate Son."^ 

2. ' For which cause God also hath exalted Him, 
and hath given Him a name which is above all 
names : that at the name of Jesus every knee shall 
bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under 
the earth : and that every tongue shall confess that 
the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the 
Father' — that is, Jesus, God and Man.^ 

3. ^ Adore the footstool of His feet, for it is holy. '^ 
S. Ambrose interprets this as follows : ' By the 

word footstool the earth is to be understood, and by 
7 Heb. i. G. « Phil. ii. 9-11. » Ps. xcviii. 5. 



THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 37 

the earth the Flesh of Christ, which to-day also we 
adore in a mystery, and which the Apostles wor- 
shipped in the Lord Jesus, as we before said. For 
Christ is not divided, but is one.'-^^ 

S. Augustine also says : * He took earth from 
the earth, because flesh is of earth, and He received 
flesh from the flesh of Mary. ... No one eats that 
flesh except he has first adored it ; and thus we 
have shown how such a footstool of the Lord's feet 
is adored ; and not only do we not sin in adoring it, 
but we sin in not adoring it.'^-^ 

S. Athanasius is still more explicit : ' We do not 
adore a creature ; God forbid. Such madness belongs 
to heathens and to Arians. But we adore the Lord 
of things created, the Incarnate Word of God. For 
though the flesh itself by itself be a part of things 
created, yet it is made the body of God. Neither do 
we adore His body divided and apart from the Word ; 
nor when we adore the Word do we separate the 
Word from the flesh : for inasmuch as we know that 
the Word was made flesh, we acknowledge God the 
Word dwelling in the flesh. '^- 

S. John Damascene : ^ Christ therefore is one. 



^0 Be Spiritu Sancto. lib. iii. 79. 
^^ Enarr. in Ps. xc^iii. 9. 
*2 Epist, ad Adclph, sect. 3. 



38 THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 

perfect God and perfect Man, whom we adore with 
the Father and the Holy Ghost in one adoration, 
with His immaculate flesh.'^^ 

S. Ildephonsus of Toledo : ^ As to which mystery 
Cyril, answering Nestorius, declares Christ to be so 
one, that is God and Man : not as if we adore a man 
with the Word, lest by this a certain division be in- 
troduced ; but adoring one and the same (object) in 
the unity of the Person : for the body (of the Word) 
is not apart from the Word, nor diverse, because the 
Word was made flesh : and manhood is so united 
and assumed into God as to be one God.'^* 

Thomassinus sums up the patristic doctrine in 
this proposition : ^ That the Word made Flesh is 
worshipped with the one adoration of latria : and 
that thus the Humanity also is enveloped in the 
worship of latria. '^^ 

Nestorius was required under anathema by the 
Synod of Alexandria under S. Cyril to subscribe to 
the following canon : * If any one shall dare to say 
that the man assumed is to be adored together with 
God the Word and to be glorified together with Him, 
as one thing tvith another (i,e, as two things), and 



" De Fide Orthodoxa, lib. iii, cap. 8. 

" Fragm. de imrtii Virginis, torn. ix. Bibl. Patr. 

^^ De Incarn, Verb. lib. xi. c. 2. 



THE 6IVINE GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 39 

not that Emmanuel Bhould rather be adored icith 
one adoration : let him be anathema. '^^ 

So also a Lateran Council under Martin I. repeats 
the doctrine of the Fourth and Fifth (Ecumenical 
Councils. It quotes the ninth canon of the Fifth 
(Ecumenical Council as follows: * If any man shall 
say that Christ is to be adored in two natures, by which 
they bring in two adorations, to God the Word sepa- 
rately and to the man separately ; or if any man 
so adore Christ, affirming the nature or essence of 
the two that are united to be one, so as to destroy 
the flesh or to confound the Godhead and the Man- 
hood : and shall not adore with one adoration God 
the Word Incarnate with His flesh according to the 
tradition of the Church of God from the beginning : 
let him be anathema. '^^ 

Petavius comments on this as follows : * Hence it 
is evident from the consent and tradition of the 
Church as a fixed and established truth that the 
flesh or the nature of man with the Word is to be 
worshipped wdth one only, and that the divine and 
supreme adoration. '^^ 

Tourneley says : ' The Human Nature of Christ 



'^ Labbe, Concilia^ torn. iii. p. 966, Cone. Ephcs. 
'^ Ibid. torn. vii. p. 258, Cone. Lateran. 
" De Incaniatione, lib. xv. cap. iii. par. 6. 



40 THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 

hypostatically joined to the Word is to be worshipped 
with one and the same adoration as the Divine Word. 
. . . Hence we may easily solve the following com- 
mon and trite objection : viz. the worship of latria is 
due to God alone. The Humanity of Christ is not 
God : therefore the worship of latria is not due to 
it. Here we must distinguish the minor proposition : 
the Humanity is not God, separated and apart from 
the Word, granted ; but hypostatically united with 
the Word, I deny it' — i.e. it is God.^^ 

Perrone : ' The Human Nature of Christ is to be 
adored with one and the same worship of latria in 
the Divine Word, with whom it is hypostatically 
united. This proposition is de fide, and its con- 
tradictory was condemned in the Fifth General 
Council.'2o 

Franzelin : ' Christ is to be adored, both re- 
garded as to His Divine Nature and regarded as to 
His Human Nature, with one and the same supreme 
worship of latria. '^^ 

The Wiirzburg Theology : ' Question : Is Christ 
to be worshipped with religious worship, not only as 
God, which is self-evident, but also as Man ? An- 

1® De Incarnatione, torn. iv. quaest. ult. p. 425. 
*^ Ibid. p. ii. c. iv. art. 2, prop. i. 
2» De Verb. Incani. cap. iv. th. xlv. 



THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 41 

5^6'^?' ; Christ as Mau, subsisting in both divine and 
human nature, that is the Man-God ; or the human 
nature of Christ hypostatically united to the Word, 
is to be worshipped absolutely with one and the 
same act of latria as the Divine Word.'^^ 



APPENDIX III. 

THE ADORATION OF THE SACRED HEART. 

The Sacred Humanity hypostatically united to the 
Word, and all parts thereof, especially the Sacred 
Heart of Jesus, are the object of divine adorationP 

I. Christ God and Man is to be adored with one 
and the same divine adoration in both natures. 
The material object {ohjectiim materiale) of this 
divine adoration is Christ, God and Man ; the 
formal object {ohjectmn formale), by reason of which 
this divine adoration is given to Him in both 
natures, is the Godhead of the Incarnate Son. 

II. The Sacred Humanity, or Human Nature, 
inasmuch as it is the human nature of the Word, is 
the partial object {ohjectmn partiale) which is adored 

22 Be Incarnatione, dis. v. sect. lii. art. 1. 

23 Franzelin, De Verbo Incarn. cap. vi. th. xlv. p. 453. 



42 THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACKED HEART- 

with divine worship ; for as the Person of Christ, 
including His human nature, is the object of divine 
adoration, the worship which is due to His Person is 
due to all that is united to His Person : for this 
cause the Fifth General (Ecumenical Council con- 
demned the Nestorians, who introduced two adora- 
tions as to two separate natures and to tvvO separate 
persons. It condemned also those who, as the 
ApollinaristaB and Eutychians, affirmed the adoration 
to be one, because one nature alone was to be adored ; 
viz. the Divine, excluding the humanity. The 
Council affirms that one adoration is to be offered to 
the Word together with His flesh, so that the flesh 
also is the object, because it is the flesh of the Word 
who is adored as one whole object. 

ni. The calumnies of the ancient Nestorians 
and Monophysites were renewed by the Jansenists, 
who affirmed, with the Apollinaristoe, that the human 
nature could not be adored because it was a creature, 
and therefore denounced the Catholics as sarkolatr^ 
and anthropolatrce (i.e. worshippers of the flesh and 
worshippers of man). 

IV. The Incarnation is the manifestation of God. 
S. John says expressly, ' The Word was made flesh, 
and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory ;'^^ and, 

2^ S. JohD i. 14. 



THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACTtED ITEART. 43 

again, * That which was from the beginning, which 
we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, 
which we have looked upon and our hands have 
handled of the w^ord of life ; for the life was mani- 
fested, and w^e have seen and do bear witness. '^^ The 
Incarnate Word, therefore, manifests Himself to us 
to be adored in His human nature. We may adore 
Him in all His divine perfections, in His infinite 
goodness, love, mercy, wisdom, omnipotence, mani- 
fested in His Incarnation. We may adore Him also 
as He manifests Himself to us in all the actions and 
sufferings of His Incarnate Person, in His Nativitj^, 
His Infancy, His Passion, His Death, His Resur- 
rection, His glory at the right hand of the Father. 
S. Thomas adored Him in the manifestation of His 
Five Sacred Wounds; we adore Him also in His 
Sacred Heart. 

V. Of this devotion Franzelin says, that it was 
* assailed by the Jansenists with incoherent cla- 
mours and calumnies not less absurd than impu- 
dent. '^^ He adds, that certain Catholics in the time 
of the Synod of Pistoia joined in the cry. His 
answer to them is as follows : It never came into 
the mind of anybody bjjt of certain absurd accusers 
that the Sacred Heart of Jesus is to be worshipped 

25 S. John i. 2. ^^ Be Vcrho Incarnato, p. ii^o. 



44 THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 

and adored either divided from the humanity or 
separate from the hypostatic union or the Divine 
Person whose humanity it is. This false and wanton 
accusation was condemned in the Bull Aiictor^ein 
Fidei, by which also the Synod of Pistoia was con- 
demned in the following words : ' The proposition 
which asserts ^^ to adore the linmanity of Christ 
directly, vutch more any part of it, icoidd always he 
to give divine honours to a creaf^aY," inasmuch as by 
this word directly it is intended to reprobate the 
divine adoration which the faithful give to the 
humanity of Christ, as if such adoration by which 
the humanity and the life-giving flesh of Christ is 
adored, not indeed for its own sake and as if mere 
flesh {non quidem propter se et tanqiiam nitda caro), 
but as it is united to the Divinity, would be divine 
honour given to a creature, and not that one and 
the same adoration by which the Word Incarnate 
with His own flesh is adored according to the Fifth 
General Council of Constantinople, canon ix., is a 
proposition false, captious, derogatory, and injurious 
to the pious and due adoration given and to be given 
by the faithful to the humanity of Christ.^^ 

* The doctrine which rejects the devotion of the 
Sacred Heart of Jesus as among devotions described 

27 Const. Pii YI., Anctorem Fidei, prop. 61. 



THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART, 45 

as new, erroneous, or at least dangerous, if under- 
stood of this devotion such as the Holy See has 
approved, is false, rash, pernicious, offensive to pious 
ears, and injurious to the Holy See.^^ 

* Also, inasmuch as it censures the worshippers 
of the Heart of Jesus even by that name /or not per- 
ceiving that the sacred flesh of Christ, or any part of 
the same, or even the ivhole humanity ivhen separated 
and divided from the divinity, cannot be adored ivitli 
the ic or ship of latria — as if the faithful do adore 
the Heart of Jesus separated or divided from the 
Divinity, while they adore it as it is the Heart of 
Jesus, the Heart, that is, of the Person of the Word- 
to whom it is inseparably united in the same way 
as the bloodless Body of Christ in the three days of 
death was adorable in the sepulchre without separa- 
tion or division from the Divinity — (is a proposition) 
captious and injurious to the faithful v/ho worship 
the Heart of Christ.'^^ 

After quoting certain extravagant absurdities of 
this kind, published by Camillus Blasius in 1771, 
Franzelin justly adds: ^ The pestilence which is called 
party-spirit at times renders even acute men f ariose 
stupidos.'^^ 

VI. Among other objections to the worship of 
28 Prop. G2. 29 i]j^ 63, 30 j)^ j-^,,5, Incarn, p. 467 note. 



40 THE DIVINE GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 

the Sacred Heart is one wliicli comes from those 
whose common sense and Christian faith preserved 
them from the absurdity of feigning a heart separate 
or divided from the Incarnate Word. They admit 
that divine worship is due to the Sacred Humanity 
in the Person of the Incarnate Word, and to the 
Sacred Heart in that Sacred Humanity; but they 
affirm that the object of this devotion is the Sacred 
Heart, not in itself, but as a mere symbol of the love 
of Jesus. If then the Heart of Jesus is worshipped as 
a symbol of the love of Jesus, how can it be that the 
object of this worship is not real? The Heart of 
Jesus cannot be worshipped as a symbol of charity 
without worshipping the Heart of Jesus itself. But 
this question is doubly set at rest, first by Pius the 
Sixth in the Bull Auctorem Fidei above quoted, in 
which the Pontiff declares that the faithful adore the 
Heart of Jesus as it is the Heart of Jesus, the Heart, 
that is, of the Person of the Word, to whom it is 
inseparably united, in the same way as the bloodless 
Body of Christ in the three days of death was adored 
in the sepulchre without separation or division from 
the Divinity. And, once more, Pius the Ninth, in 
the Apostolic Letters of Beatification of Blessed 
Margaret Marj^, August 19, 1864, says : 'Jesus, the 
Author and Finisher of our Faith, desired nothing 



THE DIVINE GLORY OF TUE SACRED HEART. 47 

more than to kindle the flame of charity by which 
His Heart was burning in all ways in the hearts of 
men ; . . . . but that He might the more kindle this 
fire of charity, it was His will that the veneration 
and w^orship of His Sacred Heart should be instituted 
and promoted : ... to Blessed Margaret, fervently 
praying before the Most August Sacrament of the 
Eucharist it was made known by Christ our Lord, 
that it would be most grateful to Him if the w^orship 
of His Most Sacred Heart, burning with the fire of 
charity for mankind, should be instituted.' 

The Sacred Heart, therefore, which v/e adore is 
the human Heart that the Son of God took from 
the substance of His Immaculate Mother, and in 
taking deified it. It is the Heart of God, living and 
life-giving, adored with divine worship in heaven and 
earth, at the right hand of His Father, and in His 
real presence in the Most Holy Sacrament of the 
Altar. 



II. 

THE SACEED HEART GOD'S WAY OF 
LOVE. 



THE SACRED HEART GOD'S WAY OF 
LOVE. 



No man hath seen God at any time : the only-hegotten Son, who 
is in the hosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. S. Johij? 
i. 18. 

' No man hath seen God at any time.' Therefore 
the fool said in his heart, ^ There is no God ;' for 
that which cannot be seen, to the fool does not 
exist. But if there be a truth certain to the reason, 
it is the existence of God. I am certain of my 
own existence because I am conscious of it. I need 
not reason about it ; I make no syllogism ; my exist- 
ence is not a conclusion from premises. I know the 
existence of the natural world because my senses 
assure me of it, and I need no further evidence. My 
intellect tells me of the existence of God because 
it is a necessity of my reason to believe that, as 
the Apostle writes, ' Every house is built by some 
man. He that created all things is God.'" And 
I could as soon believe that this cathedral in which 

i Hcb. iii. 1. 



52 THE SACRED HEART GOD's WAY OF LOVE. 

we are gathered together was reared by fortuitous 
action, or piled itself up by a spontaneous volition 
of its own, as that the world that we see had no 
Maker; and I am confirmed in this necessity of 
my reason by the fact that the whole race of mankind 
has believed in the existence of God. Men may 
have multiplied their gods ; but that proves all the 
more. They may have distorted their conceptions 
of God, they may have depraved them, they may 
have weakened them almost to the verge of extinction ; 
but there is not to be found a nation or a race in the 
whole family of mankind that has not had an idea of 
God to deprave ; that is, a tradition of His existence. 
I say this, not to prove the existence of God by 
counting the number of votes, either of nations or 
of men ; but I adduce it to prove the existence of 
a necessity of the reason, of a rational law by which 
an intelligent being is coerced by the very action 
of his intelligence to believe in the existence of 
God. Moreover, I find in myself, and I trace in 
the whole history of man, a consciousness of the 
distinction of right from wrong — a belief that there 
is a law of right, and that to transgress it is wrong ; 
and as there is the notion of the law, so there is the 
notion of the lawgiver. And therefore I say once 
more that if there be anything certain to the reason, 



THE SACRED HEART GOD'S WAY OF LOVE. 53 

it is that God exists, and that God is the Maker 
of all things and the Judge of all men. That 
being so, I affirm that it is most fitting that God 
should become incarnate ; that there is no incon- 
gruity, nothing incoherent, nothing unworthy of the 
Divine Nature, in the Incarnation of God. 

It is my purpose to speak upon four points. 
The first will be what I have just said : the fitness 
of the Incarnation ; that is to say, that it is most 
consistent with the wisdom and the glory of God 
that His Son should become incarnate. Secondly, 
I purpose to show that what is called dogma is 
at the same time devotion ; and that they who 
imagine that dogma is indevotional or hinders 
devotion simply show that they do not comprehend 
what dogma is, and, I may say, what is truth itself. 
Thirdly, we shall have to speak of the five ways 
of knowing the Sacred Heart. And lastly, we shall 
speak of the presence of Jesus in the Most Holy 
Sacrament of the Altar, and of the character of His 
Sacred Heart therein to us. 

Now inasmuch as some have said that for 
God to be made man has unfitness in itself, I affirm 
that the Incarnation is in a high degree fitting, 
and in harmony with the Divine Nature, and there- 
fore most convenient, that is to say, in strict agree- 



54 THE SACRED HEART GOD's WAY OF LOYE. 

ment with the nature of God and of man. And 
further, I purpose to show that it is most for the 
glory of God, and that if God had not been incar- 
nate one great manifestation of His glory would not 
have been given ; that in the Incarnation God has 
both glorified Himself and deified our humanity, 
and that He has made us partakers of His glory 
and of a Divine Nature by making us members of 
Christ; and that therefore to that essential glory 
which He had from all eternity — namely, the 
mutual knowledge and love of the Ever-blessed 
Trinity — He has added the highest accidental glory, 
in the greatest possible knowledge and love and 
adoration on the part of His creatures. This, then 
in outline is that of which I wish to speak. 

1. And first I will begin by affirming this evi- 
dent truth, that by the Incarnation God has placed 
Himself within the range of the human intelligence, 
and thereby has enabled man to know Him with a 
fulness and a precision which was not possible be - 
fore. What was the range of the knowledge of the 
first man in Paradise it is not easy for us to say. 
That he had a knowledge by supernatural light, that 
he knew God, and that by the light of faith he saw 
God — not as a whole (that is impossible, for God 
is infinite), but in His perfections — is certain. As 



THE SACRED HEART GOD's WAY OF LOVE. 55 

we who see the firmament see the whole heavens, 
though they extend beyond our sight — for we see 
the heavenly bodies, and in seeing them we form a 
conception of all that we cannot see — so Adam, by 
supernatural light and by the supernatural intelli- 
gence which came with it, knew God. But this was 
clouded by his sin ; and we, in the state in which 
we are, even with the light of faith, are darkened 
by his fall. Our weakened intelligence limits our 
knowledge of God. The conception of God in His 
infinitude and His eternity and His boundless per- 
fections transcends our faculties and overwhelms our 
intelligence. And therefore, in order to make the 
knowledge of Himself easier and more intimate to us, 
God became incarnate. He came into the midst of 
mankind in the dimensions of our manhood. He 
enabled us to comprehend His infinite presence by a 
presence which is finite. He was verily and truly 
and personally present by the manhood which He as- 
sumed ; and that manhood was of the same dimen- 
sions and stature as ours. They who looked upon 
the face of Jesus Christ saw God. And further, in 
manifesting that finite presence of the Infinite God 
He also manifested the infinite perfections of God 
in the finite perfections of His deified manhood. 
The sanctity and the love and the truth and the 



5G THE SACRED HEART GOD's WAY OF LOVE. 

mercy of Jesus were the very same divine attributes 
and perfections as the sanctity, mercy, justice, and 
truth of God. And further, there was a finite 
image of God visible to man which was the very and 
true manifestation of the infinite image of God. 
The only -begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the 
Father, is the Brightness of His Father's glory, the 
Figure of His substance, the express Image of the 
invisible God. These are three titles given to 
Him by the Holy Ghost. And the Infinite Image 
of God, the Eternal and Uncreated Intelligence of 
God — that is, the Son of God — took upon Himself 
our humanity, which was also created to God's image 
and likeness. The Infinite Image of God clothed 
in our humanity united both the original and 
the likeness in one Person ; and thereby the 
conception of God became to man more intimate, 
more facile, more intelligible, more within the 
sphere of the human reason. And whereas before, 
the nations of the world who had lost the true 
knowledge of the invisible God had formed to 
themselves both mental and material idols — that 
is, local, finite, and human conceptions of God — 
God abolished them by taking our humanity upon 
Himself, manifesting Himself to sense and to reason 
by a finite presence ; and by that presence of His 



THE SACKED HEART GOD S WAY OF LOVE. 57 

deified humanity He destroyed, as by the flood of 
light which when the sun rises fills the world, all 
false images and false conceptions of the infinite 
God fashioned for itself by the darkened heart of 
man. The words therefore of the Apostle are strictly 
true in this : * God, who commanded the light to 
shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, 
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of 
God, in the face of Jesus Christ.'^ The Sacred 
Countenance of the incarnate Son of God arose upon 
the world as the Sun of the New Creation, the 
Mirror of God; and all those who saw Him saw 
God. Therefore He said : ^ Do you not believe 
that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me ? 
He that seeth Me seeth the Father also;'^ for ^I 
and the Father are one.*^ And so it came to pass 
that God, who from the creation was present in 
all things in a divine manner — for He was present 
by His essence, which sustains the being of all 
created things ; He was with them also by His 
sovereignty, which impresses a law upon all things, 
and by His power, which preserves all His works 
— to this threefold manner of presence added a 
fourth, that is, by Incarnation. The Creator came 
into the midst of His creatures as if He were one 

2 2 Cor. iv. G. ^ S. John xiv. 9, 10. ' lb. x. 30. 



58 THE SACRED HEART GOD*S WAY OF LOVE. 

of them. He took upon Himself our humanity ; 
and He thereby became visible and palpable. As 
afterwards He met the unbelief of Thomas, so in 
the Incarnation He meets the folly of the fool, 
who, because ^ no man hath seen God at any time,' 
said there is no God. He came and He showed 
Himself; so that man, by the report of his own 
senses to his own rational intelligence, should know, 
by a new and more explicit testimony, and that the 
testimony of reason, that there is a God. 

2. Then, once more, by the Incarnation God 
placed Himself in like manner within the range of 
our hearts. There is nothing in the whole history 
of the world more fearful than the corruption of 
the heart of man under false conceptions of God. 
Heathenism is man without God, and for that reason 
corrupted. There is not a passion or a vice of human 
nature which was not deified by the pagan world. 
The very adorations which they paid to the monstrous 
gods of their own conception were, like their idols, 
horrible and not to be described. Therefore God, for 
the purification and sanctification of the human heart, 
placed Himself within the sphere of our affections : 
He has made it easy to know Him, and therefore 
easy to love Him. He revealed Himself of old to 
Prophets, to Patriarchs, and to His own people. 



THE SACRED HEART GOD's V^AY OF LOVE. e59 

The personal nature of God was known and under- 
stood by the line of the faithful at all times, and 
especially by the family of Israel, to whom God gave 
a large and abundant revelation of Himself in His 
divine personality by His incomprehensible Name, 
*Iam who am.' The power, the love, the mercy 
of God — all these great moral attributes were revealed 
to them. But that He might make them more inti- 
mate with the heart of God, He took for Himself a 
nature like our own ; He came as a man into the 
midst of men ; He came to gaze upon men with a 
human countenance, to speak to men with a human 
voice, to love men with a human heart, that men 
might see, united in His Person, the Creator and the 
creature, the Infinite and the finite, the Divine and 
the human, that is, in the hypostatic union of man- 
hood with God. In Him was revealed the fountain 
of all the gifts of grace : the fountain of life which 
in eternity was in the bosom of God, on the eternal 
Hills. The Eiver of life came down through the 
Sacred Heart of Jesus, and from Him has spread to 
all nations. * The Word was made flesh, and dwelt 
amongst us ; and we saw His glory, the glory of 
the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and 
truth.' He revealed thereby the divine character- 
istics of love, pity, compassion, mercy, tenderness, 



60 THE SACRED HEART GOD's WAY OF LOVE. 

long-suffering, and generosity. The Word made flesh 
bore upon Him the whole impress and delineation 
of God. The eternal character of God shone through 
the transparent perfections of His human character. 
It was the human interpretation of the divine nature. 
And what was the character so revealed ? In one 
word, it was ' God is charity.' The essence of God 
is charity, and the essence of God is Himself. God 
is charity ; and that Charity was incarnate, and that 
Charity came and was passible among men. He came 
to weep over the sins of men, to weep at the grave 
of the dead, to weep over the sins of Jerusalem, to 
suffer, to hunger, to thirst, to be in agony, and to be 
crucified. What, then, is our conception of the Divine 
Nature through the Incarnation ? Love, sorrowing, 
suffering, and dying for us. It is not possible for the 
eternal perfections of the love of God to be more in- 
telligible than God has made them by the Incarnation 
of His Son. ' No man hath seen God,' indeed, * at 
any time ; but the Only-begotten Son, who is in the 
bosom of the Father,' and WTao was made man for us, 
to suffer and to sorrow and to die, * hath declared 
Him.' 

3. And then, once more, God was made man in 
order to create in the minds of men a consciousness, 
lost by sin, of the love of God to them. Throughout 



THE SACRED HExUtT GOD's WAY OF LOVE. 61 

the whole world, outside the people of Israel, every 
conception of God was terrible and full of fear. The 
worship of God was the propitiation of wayward, irre- 
sistible, and avenging powers. The thought of a God 
who is love, pity, compassion, purity, and holiness 
indeed, but full of mercy, was a conception not to be 
found except in revelation. The highest conception 
of God was imperfect until the Incarnation. Then it 
received its fulness, when God made man was mani- 
fest, and manifested in Himself the character of God. 
A consciousness was then awakened in the hearts of 
men that God loves man, and that there is no love, 
of which the human heart can form a conception, 
such as is the love of God for fervour, for tenderness, 
for generosity. There is no love that can be believed 
by the heart of man like the love of God. And be- 
cause the love of an invisible, inscrutable, spiritual, 
and Eternal Being was hard for the heart of man to 
conceive, God therefore manifested Himself in our 
humanity, that is. He came to assure us of His love 
as a kinsman speaking to kinsmen. He took not 
upon Him the nature of angels, because He did not 
come to redeem angels ; but He took upon Him the 
nature of man, because He came to redeem mankind. 
If He had taken upon Himself the nature of angels, 
He could not have suffered as man ; and if He had 



62 THE SACilED IIEAllT GOD's WAY OF LOVi:. 

come in the form of an angerHe Avould not have been 
our kinsman, for we are not of the kindred of angels. 
*He took upon Himself/ therefore, as the Apostle 
says, Ho be a partaker of flesh and blood, that through 
death He might destroy him who hath the empire of 
death.' He came in our humanity as our kinsman, 
and He spoke to us as a kinsman ; and we know, if in a 
foreign land we meet with one of our own race, one of 
our own people, how our hearts warm to him in the 
midst of strangers. A secret but sure attraction draws 
us to him as if he were more than friend. What, 
then, was the effect of the Incarnation when God came 
into the midst of men ; when He manifested Himself 
as the Kinsman of men; and when He came, not only 
as the Kinsman, but as the Brother, as one wdio had 
the same Father — one too who had the same Mother, 
for He took our humanity of her substance ? He 
came too as one who had the same home, and could 
say, ' In My Father's house there are many mansions : 
I go to prepare a place for you.' And He came, not 
only as a brother, but as a friend, — for all kinsmen 
are not brothers, and all brothers are not friends. 
He came as a friend, as one who had the same will 
with us, in so far as our will is right — that is to say, 
so far as our will is towards that which is for our 
happiness and our salvation ; and He proved all this 



THE SACRED HEART GOD's WAY OF LOVE. G3 

by dying for us. He came as our Saviour, as our 
Redeemer from death and from sin, from which doom 
we could not save ourselves, xlnd why was all this ? 
That by all these things He might draw our hearts 
upwards into the love of God : that from the love 
of kinsman to the love of brother, from the love of 
brother to the love of friend, from the love of friend 
to the love of Saviour, from the love of Saviour to 
the love of God, He might draw all hearts to Him- 
self, and with them ascend into heaven ; so that the 
words of the Apostle are true to the very letter, 
* Therefore if you be risen with Christ seek the things 
that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right 
hand of God. Mind the things that are above, not 
the things that are upon the earth. For you are 
dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.'^ He 
was raising up the heart of man little by little, that 
by the consciousness of the love of God He might 
make men to love God. All this manifestation of 
personal love was a divine means of winning back 
again the hearts of men. God has an infinite power 
of command ; but even the power of command in God 
Himself cannot make man love Him. The infinite 
power of the word of God is such that when He said, 
' Let there be light,' there was light. At His word all 

« Col. iii. 1-3. 



G4 THE SACRED HEART GOD's WAY OF LOVE. 

creation sprang into existence ; the command of God 
went forth, and it was done. But the command of 
God from the beginning has been saying, ^Thou shalt 
love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart ;' and 
we have not obeyed. Man will not do what God 
commands ; and no commandment can bend or 
win the will of man. And why ? Because the heart 
of man is cold, because the heart of man is hard 
with love of self, and because in the heart of man 
there is a free will which is averted from God. All 
the commandments of God are not enough to make 
us love Him, and that because nothing but a 
flame will kindle flame ; a stream of water will not 
kindle fire, but a spark will kindle a conflagration, 
because it is of the same nature. A loving heart alone 
therefore can kindle love, and Love was incarnate in 
order to kindle love in man. The Charity of God 
was made man, that our hearts might be made to burn 
with the love of God. Our Lord has declared it : 
' I am come to send fire upon the earth ; and what do 
I desire but that it should be kindled ?' He knew 
that, as love alone can kindle love, love alone can 
feed and sustain love. If we kindle a fire, unless 
we tend and feed it, soon or late it will die out. 
So is it with the love of God. If God should kindle 
the love of Himself in our hearts. He must keep it 



THE SACRED HEART GOD's WAY OF LOVE. 65 

alive. Unless He sustain and feed it by a perpetual 
reviving of the motives of love, our selfishness would 
soon leave off to love Him. And this He has done 
for ever through the Sacred Heart of His Incarnate 
Son. As love alone can kindle love and alone can 
feed and sustain it, so love alone can make love per- 
fect. Nothing but the Divine Love made Man, and 
thereby united with us, and, more than this, dwell- 
ing in us, can bring our love to perfection. But ' God 
is charity ; and he that abideth in charity abideth 
in God, and God in him ;'^ and in every Communion 
of the Precious Body and Blood of Jesus Christ you 
receive the Sacred Heart, that is, you receive the In- 
carnate Love of God into your heart. 

4. And further : God has provided in the Incar- 
nation a fourth way of presence in the world. He 
thereby has opened a way by which the consciousness 
of His presence may be perpetually sustained in all 
those who have hearts to believe. Why is it that 
men who call themselves Christians wander to and 
fro, so cold, so careless, and so forgetful of God? 
It is because they have not a recollection, nor even 
a consciousness of His presence. If they lived 
and moved in the presence of God as they do in 
the light of the noonday sun, if they were as 

« 1 S. John iv. 16. 
F 



CS THE SACPvED HEAKT GOd's WAY OF LOYE. 

conscious of their relation to Gocl and God's rela- 
tion to them as they are of the relations they bear 
to those that jare about them in life, then their 
whole being and their work here would be governed 
by that sense. But it is not so with us. There- 
fore that He might bring this home with all the 
intimate force of a constant remembrance, He con- 
stituted Himself to be the Head of the Body of 
which we are members. In so far as we are united 
to Him, the Head of that Body is present in us. He 
is in the whole Church, and in every member of 
it. In the measure in which we are united to 
Him, in that measure the consciousness and the 
recollection of His presence will be continually 
sustained in us. If at any time it be not so, the 
fault is ours. But that same consciousness of His 
presence as God and Man, and as Head of the 
Church in all its members, is always and every- 
where sustained by the perpetual presence of the 
Most Holy Eucharist. The visible Church upon 
earth is, I may say, the Tabernacle in which abides 
the Incarnate Word present upon every altar. The 
Church is one wide sanctuary, it is the guest- 
chamber spread in all the v/orld, in which Jesus 
gave this last commandment of His love. The 
visible Church in the world hangs as a canopy over 



THE SACRED HEART GOD's WAY OF LOVE. G7 

that Sacred Presence ; and every altar in the 
Catholic unity is but one altar, as the Most Holy 
Sacrament upon every altar is but one Sacrament, 
one mystery of the ^ Word made flesh,' dwelling 
for ever in the midst of us. The consciousness of 
His presence is made thereby intimate and i3er- 
petuai and universal. Therefore, in all our daily 
life it ought to be with us. When you arise in the 
morning, you rise up disciples of Jesus Christ. Let 
it be the first thing you do, to loieel down at His feet. 
Go out to your daily life from His very side. As the 
Apostles, when they left their Master to do His bid- 
ding in Judea and in Galilee, so do you likewise. Day 
by day you leave the presence of Jesus Christ to go 
into your path in life, whatever it may be, and in 
that path of life He is with you everywhere. He is 
with you in the throng of men, in the solitude of 
your home, in your silent work, and in the midst of 
your busiest hours. If you are unconscious of His 
presence. He is there none the less. If you forget 
Him, you deprive yourselves of tlie strength and 
peace of knowing that you are never alone, and 
that He is ever with you. 

Here, then, I have given sufficient reason to 
justify what I said : that the Incarnation has spread 
the knowledge of God into the sphere of our intelli- 



68 THE SACKED IIEAPtT GOD's WAY OF LOVE. 

geiice and into the range of our affections; that it 
has created in us a consciousness of the love of God 
to us ; that it has awakened the love of man to God ; 
and that it has created and perpetuated a sense 
of His presence with us in a way ineffable, because 
divine. It is indeed a love exceeding all that our 
heart can conceive ; it is the greatest exercise of 
the omnipotence of God in the revelation of Himself. 
If that be so, then the conclusion from what I have 
said is this : that the Sacred Heart is a volume of 
light, in which the knowledge and the love of God 
are written within and without. When Jesus said, 
* I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life,' He 
meant to say, * Everything is contained in Me ;' 
' No man cometh unto the Father but by Me ;'^ there 
is no other path or gate. In Him ' are hid all 
the treasures of wisdom and know^ledge;'® that 
is to say, no man can know God truly except by 
Jesus Christ ; no man can truly know the True God 
except by the light of faith ; no man can have the 
light of faith except by the grace of the Holy Ghost, 
Who comes to us through Jesus Christ : and by 
that light of faith we come to the Father, through 
the merits of the Incarnate Son. There is no other 
way to . life. No man can come to God by any 
7 S. Jolin xiy. 6. « Col. ii. 3. 



THE SACRED IIEAKT GOb's V>'AY OF LOVE. C9 

merits of his own, but solely and only through the 
merits of the Incarnate Son. No man can come to 
the Father except by the light of the teaching of 
Jesus Christ, and no man can come to Jesus Christ 
except the Father, who hath sent Him, shall draw 
him.^ Therefore, He is the Way, and the only way 
to the Father. And when He said, ^ I am the gate ; 
by Me, if any man shall enter in, he shall be saved, 
and he shall go in and go out and find pasture,'^^ 
He meant precisely this : it is only through His 
merits, through His teaching, through His grace, 
and therefore through His Sacred Heart, that we 
can come to the Father. But He said not only ' I 
am the Way,' He said also ^I am the Truth.' All 
the truth of God is summed up in the Incarnation. 
We shall see this more fully hereafter. It is enough 
at this time to say that ' in Jesus,' as the Apostle 
said, * dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead cor- 
porally ;'^^ that is, the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the 
most glorious throne of God ; for where the Son is, 
there is the Father and the Holy Ghost — the Son 
Incarnate, the Father not Incarnate, nor the Holy 
Ghost Incarnate, but all three consubstantial in one 
Godhead. But being consubstantial, wheresoever 
is the Person of the Son, there is the Person of the 
» S. John vi. 4i. ^« lb. x. 9. ^' Col. ii. 9. 



70 THE SACRED HEART GOD's WAY OF LOVE. 

Father and there the Person of the Holy Ghost. 
And the Sacred Heart is therefore the throne of the 
Ever-blessed Trinity. It is the most glorious King- 
dom of God the Father, in which He reigns over 
that Divine Heart-— human like ours — v>'ith the most 
perfect sway of His Wisdom and His Love, receiv- 
ing from it in return the most perfect obedience of 
which a human heart is capable. And so also the 
Sacred Heart is the holiest and the highest sanc- 
tuary of the Son. The sanctuary where He dwells 
in the Blessed Sacrament is the type of that sanc- 
tuary of the Sacred Heart in which He personally 
dwells by incarnation. And the Heart of Jesus is 
also the mightiest instrument of the Holy Ghost, 
whereby He draws souls to salvation, whereby He 
reveals the mysteries of the Ever-blessed Trinity, 
whereby He accomplishes the works of grace in the 
world. And as He is ^ the Way' and ^ the Truth,' 
so He is ^ the Life' — eternal life even now to those 
in whom He dwells. 

And, lastly, to sum all up in a word. As the 
Licarnation is God's Book of Life, the knowledge 
of His Sacred Heart is the interpretation and 
the unfolding of that Book. The whole mystery of 
God and of man, and the relations of God and man 
in grace and in glory, are all written in the Sacred 



THE SACRED HEAllT GOD's Y\'AY OF LOVE. 



Heart. They that know the Sacred Heart know 
God ; they that love the Sacred Heart love God ; 
and they that are made like to the Sacred Heart are 
made like to God. It is the compendiam of the 
whole science of God, of the whole way of salvation, 
of the whole gospel of eternal life. 

And, therefore, to repeat what I said in the 
beginning, the Incarnation has a fitness and a 
convenience in the ways of God to man, and an 
adaptation to the nature and to the needs of man ; 
to his intelligence, to his heart, and to his will. 
God had already, I may say, spoken by His presence 
through His wdiole inanimate creation ; for God is 
manifested by all His works. His power and His 
divinity are known 'by the things which are made.' 
But this was not enough to make Himself palpable 
to sense, intelligible as an object of the intellect, and 
intimate as an object of love to the heart. What yet 
remained possible? If He had assumed the nature 
of angels, it would not have been enough ; there would 
still have been a gulf between Him and us. He there- 
fore assumed our humanity. He could come no 
nearer. He could not make Himself more intelli- 
gible than by a human voice and a human form. He 
could not make Himself the object of human love 
more intimatley than by loving us with a human 



72 THE SACRED HEART GOD's WAY OF LOVE. 

heart. Therefore, instead of incongruity — as the wise 
men of this world, who will not believe, so proudly 
and so wildly say — the Incarnation is the naost 
luminous revelation of the perfect wisdom of God. 
He who knows what is in man, and who knows His 
own perfection, glorified Himself above measure in 
that His Son was incarnate for our sakes. This, 
then, is the declaration we have received from Him : 

* God is light' — that is. Truth and Purity — ^ and in 
Him there is no darkness. If we say we have fel- 
lowship with Him and walk in darkness' — that is, 
commit sin — ^ we lie, and do not the truth ; but if 
we walk in the light' — that is, in purity and truth — 

* as He is in the light, then we have fellowship one 
with another, and the Blood of Jesus Christ His Son 
cleanseth us from all sin.'^- 

12 1 S. John i. 5-7. 



III. 

DOGMA THE SOURCE OF DEVOTION. 



c^ 



DOGMA THE SOUKCE OF DEVOTION, 



You adore that which yon know not. We adore that which vre 
know. S. John iv. 22. 

Jesus is the Book of Life, and in Him ' are hid all 
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,' of Him alone 
all the mysteries of the Kingdom of God may be 
learnt ; not only because He is the Divine Teacher, 
but because they are all contained in the knowledge 
of Himself. When He said, ' I am the Wav, the 
Truth, and the Life ; no man cometh unto the 
Father but by Me,' He declared that all truth was 
contained in Himself; and when the Apostle said 
that he judged himself to ' know nothing save Jesus 
Christ and Him crucified,'-^ he meant the same thing, 
namely, that he who knows Jesus Christ aright 
know^s the whole Eevelation of God. As the radiance 
which flows from the sun is inseparable from the 
sun, so is the Revelation of God the radiance which 
flows from the Person of Jesus Christ. I have said 

' 1 Cor. ii. 2. 



76 DOGMA THE SOURCE OF DEVOTION, 

that the Sacred Heart is the key or interpretation of 
the Incarnation of the Eternal Word. Any one who 
desires to know the mystery of the Incarnation—and 
in that mystery of the Incarnation to know, I will 
say, the whole Science of God — may learn it by 
reading the Sacred Heart of our Divine Eedeemer. 
And they who know that Science of God know also 
what I may call the science of man — that is, of our 
human nature — in Him and in ourselves ; and they 
know likewise the relations between God and man 
and between us men, each to the other. And in 
these things are summed up the whole revelation of 
God. They who know these three things fully will 
know all that God has revealed for our salvation. 

Now our Divine Lord, speaking to the woman of 
Samaria, said, ' You adore that which you know not ;' 
because they were an idolatrous people, of mixed 
race, partly of Israel, partly of the nations brought 
and planted in a portion of the Promised Land. 
They had intermarried with the people of Israel, they 
had received the books of the Pentateuch, and they 
had a sort of fragmentary knowledge of the old revela- 
tion ; but they did not rightly know the True God ; 
and so much as they did know of the True God, 
they did not know truly. Therefore they could not 
worship Him ' in spirit and in truth.' For this cause 



DOGMA THE SOURCE OF DEYOTIOX. 77 

our Divine Lord said, ^ You worship that which you 
know not ;' and He then further said, ^ We adore that 
which we know, for salvation is of the Jews.' The 
full and pure light of revelation is in Jerusalem. 
The true knowledge of the True God is with us ; and 
yet the time is coming when ' they that adore shall 
adore neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem, 
but everywhere in spirit and in truth.' 

From these words I draw one conclusion, namely, 
that knowledge is the first and vital condition of all 
true worship. You will remember how S. Paul at 
Athens found an altar Uo the unknown God,' and 
how he commended the people for their intentions of 
piety, but reproved them for their ignorance. He 
said, ^ Him whom you ignorantly worship, Him I 
declare unto you.' Without knowledge there can be 
no adoration * in spirit and in truth ;' and just in the 
measure of our knowledge will our adoration be 
more or less perfect, that is, intelligent and spiritual. 
If our knowledge be full and perfect, so will our 
adoration be. From this let us draw two conse- 
quences, and then pass on. 

The first is this. How great is the superstition 
of those who for centuries have pleased themselves 
by accusing the Catholic Church of teaching that 
* ignorance is the mother of devotion.' The othe*' 



78 DOGMA THE SOURCE OF DEVOTION. 

consequence is : that the mother of all true know- 
ledge relating to God, and therefore the mother 
of all true worship, is the Holy Catholic Church 
alone. Is it not a masterpiece of craft that the 
father of lies should have so darkened the under-- 
standings of our adversaries as to lead them into 
the profound superstition of believing that we keep 
people in ignorance in order to make them devout ? 
My purpose, then, will be to trace out the connection 
between what the world scornfully calls dogma and 
devotion, or the worship of God ' in spirit and in 
truth.' 

1. Now, first of all, let us see what is dogma. 
In the mouth of the world it means some positive, 
imperious, and overbearing assertion of a human 
authority, or of a self-confident mind. But what 
does it mean in the mouth of the Church ? It means 
the precise enunciation of a divine truth, of a divine 
fact, or of a divine reality fully known, so far as it 
is the will of God to reveal it, adequately defined in 
words chosen and sanctioned by a divine authority. 

It is the precise enunciation of a divine truth 
or of a divine reality ; for instance, the nature and 
the personality of God, the Incarnation, the coming 
of the Holy Ghost, and suchlike truths and realities 
of the mind of God, precisely known, intellectually 



D{)GMA TTTE SOUnCE OF DEVOTTO::. 70 

conceived, as God has revealed or accomplished 
them. Every divine truth or reality, so far as God 
has been pleased to reveal it to us, casts its perfect 
outline and image upon the human intelligence. His 
own mind, in which dwells all truth in all fulness 
and in all perfection, so far as He has revealed of 
His truth, is cast upon the surface of our mind, in 
the same way as the sun casts its own image upon 
the surface of the water, and the disc of the sun is 
perfectly reflected from its surface. So, in the in- 
telligence of the Apostles, when, by the illumination 
of the Holy Ghost, on the Day of Pentecost,,. the> 
revelation of God was cast upon the surface of their 
intellect, every divine truth had its perfect outline 
and image, not confused, nor in a fragmentary shape,; 
but with a perfect and complete impression. For in- 
stance, that God is One in nature; that in God there 
are Three Persons, and one only Person in Jesus 
Christ. Next, it is not- enough that a truth should- 
be definitely conceived; for if a teacher^' know the 
truth, and is not able to communicate it with ac- 
curacy, the learner will be but little -the wiser. And 
therefore God, w^ho gave His truth, has given also 
a perpetual assistance, whereby the Apostles first, 
and His Church from that day to thi^, precisely and 
without erring declare to mankind the truth which 



80 DOCniA THE SOURCE OF DEVOTION. 

was revealed in the beginning; and in declaring 
that truth the Church clothes it in words, in what 
we call a terminology : and in the choice of those 
terms the Church is also guided. There is an as- 
sistance, by which the Church does not err in selecting 
the very language in which to express divine truth. 
For who does not see that, if the Church were to err 
in the selection of the w^ords, the declaration of 
truth must be obscured? We are conscious every 
day that we know with perfect certainty what we 
desire to say, but, from the difficulty of finding or 
choosing our words, we cannot convey our meaning 
to another. The Church is not a stammerer as we 
are. The Church of God has a divine assistance 
perpetually guiding it, to clothe in language, that is, 
in adequate expression, the divine truth w^hich God 
has committed to her trust. Therefore a dogma 
signifies a correct verbal expression of the truth cor- 
rectly conceived and known. But, lastly, it is not 
sufficient that it be clearly understood in the intel- 
lect and accurately expressed in w^ords, unless the au- 
thority by which it is declared shall be divine ; because 
without a divine authority we cannot have a divine 
certainty ; without a divine authority we can have no 
such assurance that the doctrine which we hear may 
not be erroneous. The Apostles were such a divine 



DOGMA THE SOURCE OF DEVOTION. 81 

authority, for they spoke in the Name of their Master. 
Their successor to this day is the Church, which, 
taken as a whole, has heen, by the assistance of the 
Holy Ghost, promised by our Divine Lord and never 
absent from it, perpetually sustained in the path of 
truth, and preserved from all error in the declaration 
of that truth. Therefore *He that heareth you 
heareth Me' is true to this day. He that hears the 
voice of the Church hears the voice of its Divine 
Head, and its authority is therefore divine. This, 
then, is a dogma : a divine truth clearly understood 
in the intellect, precisely expressed in words and hj 
a divine authority. There are many things which 
follow from this. First, it proves that the Church of 
God must be dogmatic : and that any body which is 
not dogmatic is not the Church of God. Any body 
or communion that disclaims a divine, and therefore 
infallible, authority cannot be dogmatic, because 
it is conscious that it may err. And therefore the 
Catholic Church alone, the Church which is one 
and undivided throughout the world, united with its 
centre in the Holy See, — this, and this alone, is a 
dogmatic Church (as the world reproachfully reminds 
us), and on that I build my proof that it alone is 
the Church of God. A teaching authority which is 
dogmatic and not infallible is a tyranny and a 

G 



82 DOGMA THE SOURCE OF DEVOTION. 

nuisance : a tyranny, because it binds the consciences 
of men by human authority, liable to err; and a 
nuisance, because as it may err, in the long-run it 
certainly will, and ^ if the blind lead the blind, shall 
they not both fall into the ditch ?' We see, then, 
what dogma means. The Holy Catholic Church 
always has been and always must be dogmatic. In 
this, and in no other sense, is it dogmatic; for it 
delivers nothing to us to be believed except upon 
divine authority, and that which it so delivers was 
revealed by God. 

2. Let us next go on to see what is devotion. 
Devotion, or worship, or adoration is the love and 
veneration with which we regard God and His Divine 
Truth. There can be no Divine Truth which ought 
not to be an object of love and of veneration. Every 
truth that God has revealed is the word of God ; it 
is the mind of Jesus Christ — it comes to us from a 
divine voice. How is it possible that we can do 
otherwise than love and venerate every such divine 
declaration ? If, w^hen a divine truth is declared to 
us, our hearts do not turn *to it, as the eye turns 
to the light ; if there be not in us an instinctive 
yearning, w^hich makes us promptly turn to the sound 
of the divine voice, the fault is in our hearts ; for 
just in proportion as we know the truth we shall 



DOGMA THE SOURCE OF DEVOTION. 83 

be dra,wn towards it. Devotion, therefore, signifies 
the worship and love which ty faith w^e offer first to 
God, to the Ever-blessed Trinity, and to the Three 
Persons one by one. When the Persons are known 
to us, our relations to those Persons become likewise 
known, and every relation carries with it duties and 
prompts us to affections. We shall see hereafter the 
application of these truths. For the present it is 
enough to say that, in the measure in which we 
know the truth, in that measure we shall have the 
motives of loving and of venerating it. 

We may therefore understand the relation between 
dogma and devotion to be simply in this, that with- 
out knowdedge w^e cannot have either a love or a vene- 
ration for truth. Our Lord said, ^ You adore that 
which you know not ;' and because they knew^ it not 
they could not ^ adore in spirit and in truth.' S. 
Paul found some of the disciples who did not so much 
as know whether there w^ere any Holy Ghost.^ 
Could they have had any love and veneration for 
the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, of w^hose 
coming, nay, of whose existence, they never heard ? 
We may, indeed, love a person whom v>^e have 
never seen ; because S. Peter says of our Divine 
Lord, 'Whom not having seen you love;*" but we 

2 j^cts xix. 2. 3 1 S. Peter i. 8. 



84 DOGMA THE SOURCE OF DEVOTION. 

cannot love anybody of whom we do not know. We 
may know by hearsay and we may know by faith, 
and we may love those whom we know by faith 
and by hearsay ; but we cannot love those of whom 
we never heard. Therefore it is a law of our 
nature that we can will nothing and can love 
nothing unless we first know it. The intellect 
is said in philosophy to carry a light before the 
will. "What is called dogma, or divine truth, must 
go before all devotion; and in the proportion in 
which we have the light to know the objects of faith, 
in that proportion, if we be faithful, devotion will 
spring up in our hearts. Take this for an example. 
Our Divine Lord was in the midst of Ilis disciples 
before He suffered ; they knew Him to be 'a 
Teacher sent from God,' and they venerated and 
loved Him according to the knovvledge which they 
had of Him and of the perfections of His Person. 
Peter, by an infused light from God, knew Him to 
be the ' Christ, the Son of the Living God ;' but as 
3'et they none of them knew Him in the fulness 
of His Godhead. Aftei His Eesurrection tiny 
began to know Him as God and as the Eedeemer 
of the world ; after His Ascension and the Day of 
Pentecost they knew Him as the King Eternal, and 
as their Saviour and Lord, who had redeemed 



DOGMA THE SOUIICE OF DEVOTION. 85 

tliem in His Precious Blood. In the measure in 
which their knowledge grew, grew also their love 
and their worship. So that, as a rule, we may say, 
wherever there is perfect knowledge there w^ill be 
perfect worship ; and wherever the knowledge varies 
more or less, in that proportion will vary love and 
veneration. Perfect worship, therefore, is only in 
the Kingdom of God, where, in the science of the 
blessed, God and all things are perfectly known, so 
far as God has willed and the light of glory enables 
the blessed to understand. But here in this world, 
in proportion as our faith is perfect, in proportion 
as we are illuminated with the knowledge of faith, in 
that proportion we shall love and adore the One 
God, the Ever-blessed Trinity, Jesus the Incarnate 
Word, His Blessed Mother, and all His Saints, and 
all the operations and works of His divine Kingdom 
upon earth. In the measure of our knowledge all 
these things will be the objects of devotion. 

Let us sum up w-hat I have said in this way. 
You all know, at least by name, the great book 
wiiich, next after_the Holy Scriptures, the Church 
has always held in veneration, the Sum of Theology, 
by the Angelic Doctor S. Thomas Aquinas. And I 
daresay many of you possess a small book of de- 
votion, beautiful almost beyond compare, called 



oj>/ uJ 



86 DOGMA THE SOURCE OF DEVOTION. 

the Paradise of the Christ'uui Soul, Take and set 
that book by the side of the theology of S. Thomas, 
and you will find it to be dogma kindled into 
devotion, the commentary of love and vi^orship upon 
the science of God and His Saints, beginning with 
the Ever-blessed Trinity, passing on to the Incar- 
nation, from the Incarnation to the Communion of 
Saints, and to the presence of our Divine Lord in the 
Holy Eucharist. All the dogmas of faith are in 
that book of prayer and praise made one by one an 
object of devotion. Here, then, is the relation be- 
tween devotion and dogma. You see, therefore, why it 
is that the Catholic Church, from the beginning, has 
been inflexibly firm in maintaining every jot and 
tittle of its dogma. It is because God has revealed 
it, and because God has committed it to its custody; 
because if one jot or one tittle were lost, then the 
Church of God would lose some object of its devo- 
tion. The whole revelation of God, — of the Ever- 
blessed Trinity, of the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Ghost, of the Maker and the Eedeemer and 
the Sanctifier ; the mysteries of the one uncreated 
nature and of the three consubstantial,^ co-equal, co- 
eternal Persons ; of the glory of God, of the mutual 
knowledge and love of Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost,— 4his is the first great and divine reality. 



DOGMA THE SOUBCE OF DEVOTION. 87 

the object of our divine worship. To know and to 
adore the Ever-blessed Trinity is to adore God 
' in spirit and in truth.' Next, the Incarnation 
of- the Son of God: the two whole and perfe3t 
natures of Godhead and Manhood united in one 
only Divine Person, the Godhead assuming our 
humanity, the humanity deified by assumption 
into God — our manhood become the Manhood of 
God ; the Precious Blood, the Blood of God, which 
redeemed the world; the Sacred Heart, the Heart 
of God, which loves us with an infinite love, be- 
cause it is divine : all this is to be worshipped 
with the divine adoration due to the Eternal Word. 
Here is a manifold dogma, from which the Catho- 
lic Church has never suffered the diminution of 
an iota. All through the first centuries of its 
history heretics assailed the Ever-blessed Trinity 
and the Incarnation of the Son. The Church 
stood in its majestic immobility, like the light 
that never weavers, casting off to the right and 
to the left the erroneous conceptions and the 
false doctrines of men. Again, because the Sou 
of God is man, and because the Infant born in 
Bethlehem was a Divine Person, the Immaculate 
Mary was declared to bo the Mother of God : 
infinitely below God, because she is a creature; 



88 DOGMA THE SOURCE OF DEVOTION. 

immensely above all creatures, because she is the 
Mother of God ; her dignity exceeding that of all 
the creatures that God has ever -made; her union 
with Him the closest that can be conceived, save 
only the union of Godhead and Manhood in the 
one Person of her Divine Son ; her sanctity sur- 
passing that of all the creatures of His hands : 
immaculate in her conception, and sanctified with 
an immensity of grace. Hero is a dogma, and 
from this the Catholic Church has never suffered 
one hair's-breadth of deviation. Again, the Com- 
munion of Saints, the mystical Body of Christ, 
the Head and the members ; the intercommunion 
between earth and heaven, between the Church that 
is visible here in warfare and the Church that is 
triumphant beyond the grave ; the intercession oi 
the Saints on high, the invocation of their prayers 
by us on earth, — these again are dogmas ; they are 
the outlines of divine realities. Once more, the 
institution of the mystery of the Ever-blessed 
Eucharist, the Eeal Presence of the Body and 
Blood of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the 
Altar, the true and proper and propitiatory Sacrifice 
of the Holy Mass, — all these things, again, are 
dogmas; they are divine facts, divine realities, 
and therefore objects of our love. 



DOGMA THE SOURCE OF DEVOTION. 89 

And, lastly, the divine order of the Holy Catholic 
Church, of which the Incarnate Son is Head at 
the right hand of His Father, and His Vicar, or 
His visible representative, is Head on earth; one, 
as He is one, numerically and absolutely ; undivided 
and incapable of division, as the living body of a 
man, quickened by one life, from which if any mem- 
ber be cut off that member dies, but the body still 
lives on ; that one Church of God, imperishable to the 
end of time, because the Head in heaven is Eternal 
Life, and the Holy Ghost is the Lord and Life-giver : 
infallible, both in knowledge and in utterance, be- 
cause He dwells in it, and because the Spirit of Truth 
for ever guides it ; because the illumination of the 
Day of Pentecost has never been overcast ; for the 
noontide light of the revelation of God has stood still 
in all its splendour, without change or shadow, 
from that hour to this — all this is dogma, radiating 
from the one revealed truth of God, expressed in 
words chosen by divine assistance. You confess all 
tins in the Apostles' Creed, which you repeat day 
by day. We say it in the Nicene Creed in the 
Holy Mass, and in the Athanasian Creed, which 
we love more and more in these last days, because 
the world has risen up against it, and men of faint 
heart are for letting it go. All these things are 



T 



90 dog:ja the source of devotion. 

dogmas. ThcY are the truths and realities of God's 
Kingdom, for v/hich the Church has contended all 
along the line of its history in one ceaseless con- 
flict. The war began with the Ever-blessed Trinity, 
and is carried on every day now against the infalli- 
bility of the Head of the Church. And between these 
two extremes there never has been a moment when 
one or more, sometimes all, the doctrines of the 
Holy Catholic Faith have not been in controversy. 
They are the cause of conflict between the world 
and the Church of God ; but the Church has stood 
flrm and immovable, never making any compromise ; 
never, for the sake of gaining even a nation, de- 
parting from a single jot or tittle of the truth. 
If it could gain the conversion of a whole people 
by the cession of an iota of truth, it vv^culd refuse to 
cede it. Why is it so inflexible ? or, as the w^orld 
says, why is it so extreme ? Because on the dogma 
of truth depends all divine worship and all devotion 
of the heart. What is the adoration of the Ever- 
blessed Trinity but the nearest approach which we 
here can make to the vision of God ? We see and 
adore Him by faith. What is the adoration of the 
Incarnate Woid in the tabernacle but the worship 
we shall give when we see Him as He is ? You 
bow down at the Holy Mass, because you know 



DOGMA THE SOUIICE OF DEVOTION. 91 

lie is there. You adore Him in the Holy Sacrifice, 
because you know that the Oblation which He 
offered upon Calvary is there continued and applied 
to you. When the Blessed Sacrament is upon the 
altar you bow down before It, because you know It 
is the Presence of Jesus Himself; and when It is 
lifted up in Benediction you kneel for His blessing, 
as if He lifted up His hands upon His disciples. 
When you receive Him in Ploly Communion, and 
go back in silence to your place, giving thanks 
that He has come into your soul, — these are divine 
realities. Speak them, and they are dogmas. 
..^^ Dogmas are truths, and truths are divine ; for they 
are the mind and actions of God Himself. The 
world scornfully calls these things dogmas, because 
it does not believe in a Divine Teacher or a Divine 
Presence. But we know these things to be realities 
of the Kingdom of God ; and therefore we say, 
' You adore that which vou know ;iot : vre adore 
that which we know.' 

Nov\r let me draw a picture before j^ou. Three 
hundred years ago, in every country in Europe, there 
were cathedrals, abbeys, minsters, churches, and sanc- 
tuaries consecrated to the worship of the Ever-blessed 
Trinity; and in those cathedrals and abbeys and 
minsters and churches there vv^ere altars of the 



92 DOGMA THE SOURCE OF DEVOTION. 

Blessed Sacrament and of the Blessed and Immacu- 
late Motlier of God, and altars of the Saints, setting 
forth to us visibly the dogmas we have been recit- 
ing. There was then no jangling or controversy 
about the articles of faith, for all men believed the 
same thing; all v/orshipped at one altar, as the chil- 
dren of a common family and sons of a common 
Father, They had one Lord, and they were disciples 
of one Divine Teacher. Days they were of sweetness 
and peace and unity, in which the old prepared 
themselves to die in the full confidence that the 
transit from this world to the world unseen was 
a gentle passage from mortality to life eternal, up 
the luminous path which faith laid open before 
them ; when too the little children in our green ham- 
lets and in the woodlands of England and in their 
lowly cottages had the beads of our Blessed Mother 
in their hands. They learned dogma from their in- 
fancy without knowing it, the dogma of the five joy- 
ful mysteries and of the five sorrowful and the five 
glorious mysteries of Mary, in which is contained the 
whole revelation of God Incarnate ; they assembled, 
day by day and week by week, before the altar of the 
humble parish church, to pray together as one flock, 
in one fold, under one Shepherd. A sweet vision of 
^ peace, but how ghr.tte:el and gone ! Where is it 



-— a-'iu/j 



DOGMA Till': SOURCF. OF DEVOTIOIi. 93 



now ? Look to Germany, in which the riot and the 
rout began, in which the first false apostles arose : 
it had not then been affiicted with the desolation of 
its Thirty Years' War ; it was fertile and peaceful. 
And what came afterwards ? Heresy, bloodshed, 
civil w^ar, the betrayal of brother by brother, a multi- 
tude of sorrows ; a reign of death, famine, pestilence, 
the utter wreck of nations, which stamped upon Ger- 
many deep and indelible scars, visible to this hour. 
From what did it all come ? Because the unity of 
the faith had been destroyed, heresy began to make 
havoc of its people, unity of worship was broken 
down, and therefore unity of charity was shattered 
to pieces. Men began to rise against each other in 
contentious strife of tongues ; they ended in blood- 
shed. What is it now ? Look at that land in which 
,|the first apostle of the new Gospel arose. We are told 
that, in the chief city of that people, not two men in 
a hundred enter a place of worship. What belief in 
the dogmas of Christianity remains ? The Christian 
Revelation itself has been rejected ! What belief 
remains in the Holy Scriptures as an inspired book ? 
Here and there one may believe it. In that land, 
the first-born of the Eeformation, which first broke 
the unity of faith and worship, dogma and devotion 
and Christianity itself are gone down into the outer 



4 



g« '.^-A i 



Cv. 



94 DOGMA THE SOURCE OF DEVOTION. 

darkness. At this day the special animosity of 
these men is directed against the Sacred Heart and 
all vdio adore it. I have no will to say anything 
which shall have even the sound of wounding any 
susceptibilities at home, in England. I have always 
said that the English people never rejected the 
Catholic faith : they were robbed of it. I repeat 
it now. The English people did they knew not 
what, under the pernicious guidance of bad men. 
But it has been almost as disastrous as if they had 
known what they did ; for where is the unity of the 
faith in England now^ ? where is unity of worship ? 
How many sects and sub-sects and minor sects 
and sections over again do we not see, crumbling 
perpetually from the landslip which fell from the 
unity of the Church three hundred 3'ears ago. What 
a wasting away of Christian faith and Christian 
piety do we see round about us. Here we are, in a 
city of three millions. God only knows how many 
this day have set their foot in any place of Christian 
worship. All the places of worship in London 
would not contain more than a third of its popula- 
tion, nay, not a third of this teeming multitude. 
And where in this wilderness of sin do the other two 
millions vrander up and dowm ? How are they living ? 
How wdll they die ? This would not have been, had 



DOGMA THE SOUPtCE OF DKVOTIOX. 85 



V V- 



tlicrc not arisen in the midst of us proud Lad men, 
who lifted up their heel against the divine autho- 
rity of the Church of God ; rejected its teaching, 
destroyed the unity of the faith, separated this island 
from the unity of Christendom, shut out the influx 
of the divine voice by which ^ the truth as it is in 
Jesus' has been sustained from the Day of Pentecost 
until this hour; and by destroying faith they have 
made worship impossible. 

And when I say these things I can never forget 
Ireland by our side — Ireland, poor, outcast, despised, 
down-trodden, hunted from field to field, from river 
to river, from mountain to mountain. But up in the 
mountain, and by the river-side, and on the lonely 
moss, the Holy Mass was ofi*ered ; in the poor rude 
earth-hovels the beads of our Blessed Mother were 
said ; out among the woods and the bogs the Sacra- 
ments of Penance and of Holy Communion vrere 
given ; and dogma and devotion have lived on, fer- 
vent and imperishable. 

Devotion thus preserves dogma, as dogma gene- 
rates and quickens devotion. Let us come back to 
England. Is there, then, no perfect faith, no perfect 
worship among us ? Yes ; God be praised. Half a 
century ago it was, indeed, out of sight. For three 
hundred years the Holy Mass was said in the Cata- 



96 DOGMA THE SOURCE OF DEVOTION. 

combs. To-day it is visible and audible : it may be 
seen and it may be beard. It is in this place, it is 
throughout England, in all the churches and sanctu- 
aries, where the whole dogma of faith which England 
received from S. Gregory the Great through its 
first Archbishop of Canterbury is still inviolate. 
The faith of the Apostle of England, undiminished 
in jot or tittle, has descended as our heirloom from 
century to century ; and with it the whole Christian 
worship, and all its constellation of devotions to the 
Sacred Humanity, to the Five Sacred Wounds, to the 
Most Precious Blood, to the Sacred Heart, — all these 
have come down as a stream of light mingled with 
fire in the midst of England. Here, in the midst of 
all the confusions and conflicts which are perpetu- 
ally surging round about; debates in the highest 
places of this land how divine worship is to be regu- 
lated; controversies between the chief pastors, — so the 
Law runs, — of the English people and those v/ho 
ought to be their docile sons, as to what is to bo 
w^orshipped, and how, — in the midst of all this, the 
altar of the true Tabernacle stands immovable, and 
the Lamb of God is daily offered in the beauty 
and silence of Eternal Truth. I have no desire 
to dwell on these things. They are profoundly 
mournful : the just chastisement of a great revolt ; 



DOGMA THE SOURCE OF DEVOTION. 97 

f the humiliation of human error once set up in pride, 
J I now with its face upon the earth. Let me therefore 

t^ sum up all that I have said. 

The Sacred Heart is the key of the Incarnation ; 
the Incarnation is the treasure-house in which are 
all the truths of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 
The Incarnation casts off two rays of light : on the 
one side, the mystery of the Holy Sacrifice of the 
Altar ; on the other, the devotion due to the Blessed 
Mother of God. Any one who knows the Sacred 
Heart aright will know, as I said in the beginning, 
the whole science of God and the w^hole science of 
man, and the relations between God and man and 
between man and man. These truths are the dogma 
of dogmas, the treasures hid in the Sacred Heart, 
the tabernacle of God. 

Make yourselves, then, disciples of the Sacred 
Heart; learn to know it, and that knowledge will 
never pass away. Faith will pass into vision, but 
dogma is eternal ; dogma h the truth impressed 
upon the intelligence by faith. The obscurity of 
faith will pass into the light of vision; but that 
impression of the truth upon the glorified intelli- 
gence will abide for ever when Truth Himself shall 
be seen face to face. 

Love, then, the Sacred Heart, and that love will 

H 



98 DOGMA THE SOUECE OF DEVOTION. 

pass into the Beatific Union ;. for charity is eternal, 
and the love of the Sacred Heart is the union of our 
faint weak charity with the fervent charity, divine and 
human, of Jesus Christ our Lord. Adore the Sacred 
Heart, and it will pass into the worship of the eter- 
nal throne, where there will be prayer no longer, 
and reparation no more; but praise for ever^ and 
thanksgiving to all eternity. 

Do not think that the science of the Sacred 
Heart is too deep for you. It is the science of the 
poor and the science of the little child ; they, by 
an infused light and by an implicit knowledge, 
know the Sacred Heart even more perfectly and 
more precisely than the cultivated intellect which, in 
its cultivation, is cold. Therefore it is a science 
within the reach of all ; and it comes more by love 
than by light, more by prayer than by study ; most 
of all it comes by communion with the Precious Body 
and Blood of Jesus Himself. 

Make yourselves, then, disciples of His Sacred 
Heart. Learn to love and to be like it ; and in the 
measure in which you are like it you will know 
it: and in the measure in which you know it, 
you will love it ; and it will be in you as rest and 
sweetness and light and strength. You will walk 
with Jesus in this world as ,the two disciples walked 



DOGMA THE SOURCE OF DEVOTION. 99 

with Him to Emmaue, but your eyes will not be 
holden : and your heart wdll burn within you as He 
talks with you by the way ; and when you see Him 
in eternity He will not vanish out of your sight, but 
you wtII * see Him as He is/ and He vdll abide with 
you for ever. 



IV. 

THE SCIENCE OF THE SACRED HEART, 



THE SCIENCE OF THE SACRED HEART, 



That Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts : that being rooted 
and founded in charity, you may be able to comprehend with all 
the Saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth. 
To know also the charity of Christ, which surpasseth all under- 
standing, that you may be filled unto all the fulness of God. 
Ephes. iii. 17-19. 

We liaye seen that the knowledge of the Sacred 
Heart is the most perfect of dogmas : that it con- 
tains in itself the knowledge of God, the knowledge 
of man, the knowledge of the sanctification of our 
humanity in Jesus Christ, and therefore of our own 
sanctification. It sets before us an example of all 
perfection, and of our relations to God and to one 
another! We have seen also that the love of the 
Sacred Heart is the most perfect devotion : -that it 
contains in itself the love of God and the love of 
Jesus, a tender and intimate friendship of heart 
with heart, the nearest union of God and man pos- 
sible in this world. And we have seen also that 
where perfect dogma is found, perfect devotion springs 



10 i THE SCIENCE OF THE SACHED HEART. 

from it, that these two are miited as light and 
heat are united together, and that as the light is 
more intense the heat is more ardent. Light and 
heat may, indeed, in the spiritual world be parted ; 
for it is possible for a man to be illuminated in the 
intellect and yet be cold in the heart ; but to this w^e 
shall come presently. Now this appears to be what 
S. Paul w^as asking of God for the Ephesians, whom 
he had brought into the faith. He had for two whole 
years dwelt in Ephesus and taught the Ephesians 
everything that it was in the power of a human 
teacher to deliver. He was an Apostle chosen in a 
special manner, called by the Holy Ghost, converted 
by a vision of our Lord Himself, illuminated in a 
singular degree, and caught up into the third heaven, 
so that he had learnt things which it is not lawful 
for man to utter ; nevertheless even he, after all his 
labour, and after delivering to the Ephesians 'the 
whole counsel of God,' having ' kept back nothing 
from them,' as he himself declares, prayed for an 
illumination and a knov/ledge wiiich he could not 
bestow, w^hich God alone could give. He prayed 
that their hearts might be illuminated, and that they 
might perceive the indw^elling of Christ in their 
hearts by faith ; that they might be ' founded and 
rooted in charity,' and that they might ' be able to 



THE SCIENCE OF THE SACKED HEAKT. 105 

comprehend with all the Saints what is the breadth 
and length and height and depth, and to know the 
charitj^ of Christ, which surpasseth all understand- 
ing.' It is clear, therefore, that there is a kind 
of knowledge altogether supernatural, altogether a 
divine gift, something which is superadded, after all 
that we can learn by the intellect, and after all that 
we believe by faith. And to this we will turn our 
thoughts. 

It seems then, from these words of the Apostle, 
that there are five^egrees of this knowledge of Jesus, 
or, we may say, that there arelBvelvays by which we 
know, or there are GjeliMenls which we must make, 
going from step to step upwards into the light, the 
knowledge, and the love of the Sacred Heart. I will 
now endeavour, as well as I can, to point out these five 
degrees. But I feel that we are entering on a region 
— I may say on regions which are far beyond any 
I would profess to have trodden myself; nevertheless 
a teacher must teach even those things which he 
dare not think that he himself has yet made his own. 

1. The first way of knowledge and the first be- 
ginning of the knowledge of the Sacred Heart of our 
Divine Lord is by th^J^eUectjllumm^te^^ 
The virtue of faith is supernatural, and consists in 
this : it is a light of the Holy Ghost infused into the 



106 THE SCIENCE OF THE SACKED HEART. 

intellect, whereby the truths of revelation and the 
objects of faith are made, I may say, visible ; so 
that by the vision of faith we know the truths and 
objects that are revealed. It has been argued 
among the theologians of the Church whether, in 
that infused light of faith, the very articles or 
truths of the creed are infused. Some have be- 
lieved that, as in the reason of every child there 
is the whole power of numbers, so that a child can 
count as soon as it is conscious ; and as soon as 
it comes to the age of reason the power of cal- 
culation may be elicited and trained into the most 
abstruse process of numbers ; so also with the power 
of faith. They have thought, in like manner, that 
the mysteries of faith lie hid in the infused grace of 
faith ; and that just as between the natural eye and 
the natural w^orld there is a certain affinity, and ifc 
needs only the light of day to render the natural 
world visible to the faculty of sight, so with the 
truths of^revelation and the gift of faith : that they 
have an affinity with each other, and that it needs 
only the proposition of the Church to render them 
visible. Every one, therefore, who is born again has 
this knowledge of the Sacred Heart of Jesus by the 
light of faith. So long as we are in a state of grace, 
faith works by charity and unites us by love to the 



THE SCIENCE OF THE SACRED IIEAPcT. . 107 

Heart of our Lord ; so long as there is love, so long 
there is a light both of faith and charity. But by 
one mortal sin the charity of God is lost, the sanc- 
tifying grace of the Holy Ghost is forfeited. Charity 
departs with sanctifying grace, but there remain be- 
hind hope and faith ; the light is still in the soul, 
but the love has departed. And it is of this state 
that a Saint has said, ' miserum, intellectiim habere 
in coelo, voluntatem in coeno, — miserable state, to 
have the intellect in heaven and the vvill in the 
mire ;' that is, by the light of faith to know God and 
the mysteries of God, and to have the will and the 
heart sunk in the mire of sin. This is the divorce 
of light and lovey which borders on the state which 
theologians call the faith of devils, for ' the devils 
believe, and tremble.' Hell itself is light wdthout 
love — light to know God, to know the Ever-blessed 
Trinity, to know the Incarnation, to know the mys- 
teries ofEedemption when it is all too late, when sal- 
vation is impossible. Light without love turns into 
malice, hatred, rebellion, and remorse ; the inextin- 
guishable light of the knowledge of God in hell 
breeds ' the worm that never dies.' But so long as 
there is the grace of charity perfecting the light of 
faith, there faith has a special vision of the Person of 
Jesus Christ our Lord. S. Bernard savs, ' When- 



108 THE SCIENCE OF THE SACRED HEART. 

ever I hear the name of Jesus I see before me a man 
humble, lowly, loving, poor, merciful, pitiful, and 
divine;' there is a vision of beauty and sanctity, of 
majesty and dignity, always before the mind of those 
who are illuminated by faith to know the Sacred 
Heart of Jesus. This, then, is the first way or 
degree of knowledge. 

2. The second is to know the Sacred Heart by 
love ; not only by the intellect, but by the heart ; and 
that is by the perfection of faith unfolded and ripened 
by charity. Faith without charity is, as I said before, 
light without warmth ; faith and charity are light 
and warmth together ; and where there is charity 
in the heart, the vision of faith grows always more 
luminous and more full of love. Just as friends, the 
more intimately they know one another, the moye 
they love each other, come to have a living con- 
sciousness of each other's character; so it is with 
chari ty : it perfects the vision of faith by a per- 
sonal ffteildship with Jesus ; and as charity grows, 
there is a closer union between the heart of the 
disciple and the Sacred Heart of his Master ; and 
where there is union there is an assimilation ; for 
love likens the object of love to itself. They that 
love one another by living together grow like each 
other. Love identifies the souls of friends, so that 



THE SCIENCE OF THE SACKED HEART. 109 

they have at last but one will ; and as their wills are 

identified, their hearts, their affections, and their 

ways, and even their outward manner, their tone of 

voice, and their accent of speech, grow like each 

other. Thej^ change, as it were, into each other's 

likeness. We say that ' a friend is another self,' 

because there is a power of assimilation which is 

natural to love. Andfwhat is true in natural things :. 

is true in divine things J and those who love our 

Divine Lord and are united heart to heart with Him, i^jtA.*/^^ 

as they grow in likeness grow aho in knowledge ; 

they know Him better and more intimately in the 

measure in which they grow more like Him, and 

they grow more like Him in the measure in which 

they know Him. This is a divine paradox, a circle 

returning into itself. They are changed into the 

same likeness ; and such is the meaning of the 

Apostle when he says, * We are transformed into the 

same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of 

the Lord.'^ This is why the priest, if he be worthy, 

is called ^ another Christ' — words that are our crown 

if we be worthy, and our condemnation if we be not. 

Unless the priests of the Church have learnt by faith 

and by love to know their Master, unless they are 

changed into His likeness, unless they bear His Heart 

» 2 Cor. iii. 18. 



^— J 



K-jl-AaJ- 



"K/J/JLA^jlJ 



110 THE SCIENCE OF THE SACHED HEART. 

^\ithin them, unless they tliink His thoughts and 
speak His words, they are not trusty witnesses ; they 
may even give a false witness, may teach or mislead 
men to believe that their Master is other than He truly 
is. But when they are like to their Master they are 
evangelists of the Sacred Heart, true witnesses of 
their Lord, of His love and of His truth. This, then, 
is the second degree of the knowledge of the Sacred 
Heart which comes by love. 

3. The third way of knowledge is the knowledge 
of experience. The Psalmist says, ^ Taste and see 
how sweet the Lord is.' Is it not strange that these 
two senses should here be, as it were, interchanged ? 
How can we receive sight by tasting, or by seeing, 
how can we taste ? Yet it is true in spiritual things 
that if vfe taste v»'e shall see. If we have tasted that 
the Lord is sweet, we shall know Him by an experi- 
ence distinct from faith. It is a trial that we must 
make each one for himself. Wherever there is friend- 
ship, in proportion as it is prolonged and matured 
and tried in the manifold changes and vicissitudes 
of life, just in that measure we grow in the know- 
ledge of our friend. And friendship has special facul- 
ties of its own. We kno^ how friends that are inti- 
mate with each other know each other's will without 
a word, know each other's judgment without asking, 



3 ' J^^'V^ 7j \KjKJt.^'^\> 



THE SCIENCE OF THE SACKED HEART. Ill 

know how to act and how to speak in their behalf 
without going to them for counsel. There is an 
instinct and an intuition in true friendship which 
forecasts and knows at once what a friend w^ould 
desire. So it is in the life of a true disciple who 
Avalks uprightly and in obedience and in the love of 
his Divine Master. Take Abraham for an example. 
How did God try his fidelity ? What did He com- 
mand him to do ? God, who spoke with Abraham 
as a man speaks with his friend^ and who called him 
his friend, commanded him to offer up his son. 
In that He tried his trustful fidelity and his spirit of 
sacrifice ; and in that trial Abraham learned to know 
God and the love of God and the mercy of God 
with a more perfect knowledge. He obeyed without 
hesitation, and was ready to offer up his only son ; 
and by that trial he entered into a knowledge and a 
love of God such as he had never learned before. 
Again, when our Divine Lord bade the blind man go 
and wash in the Pool of Siloe He tried his faith ; and 
after he had gone and w^ashed, and his eyes were 
opened, he came back seeing, and he knew the Son 
of God. Again, S. Paul says that he was * buf- 
feted by an angel of Satan, a sting of the flesh' — 
some terrible temptation — and that he had 'besought 
the Lord thrice' — which need not only mean three 



112 THE SCIENCE OF THE SACRED HEART. 

times, but daily, continuously, and without ceas- 
ing — * that it might depart from him.' And what 
was the answer ? ' My grace is sufficient for thee ; 
for power is made perfect in infirmity.'^ After that 
answer S. Paul knew the will and the purpose of his 
Lord as he had never known till then. There is 
a continual growth of knowledge which comes by 
experience, and those w4io live in the love of the 
Sacred Heart find their whole life to be full of the 
tokens of His love to them. The consciousness of 
our relation to Him turns our whole life into a per- 
sonal service, and all His providence into a personal 
oversight and guidance. It gives a meaning and a 
purpose to everything that befalls us. Nothing comes 
by chance ; nothing falls out at random ; everything 
is ordered, even the falling of a sparrow to the earth : 
how much more the life of man, and all the events 
of it. The wdiole order and tissue of our life are dis- 
posed by the Hand of our Divine Lord for our trial 
and our sanctification ; even our very temptations 
are permitted that we may be chastised and sancti- 
fied, our afflictions that Ave may be more conformed 
to Him in His patience, and our privations that we 
may know^ what it is to be content with Him alone. 
The sorrows of life are intended to conform us to the 

2 2 Cor. xii. 7-9. 



THE SCIENCE OF THE SACRED HEART. 1 13 

* Man of Sorrows.' Whatsoever comes to us is ordered 
or permitted ; and all is overruled by Ilim with an in- 
tention and a purpose vvhicli becomes legible to tbose 
w^ho hnow Him by experience. We, then, can under- 
stand what the Apostle meant when ho said, ^ I know^ 
Him whom I have trusted,' that is, in v/hom I have be- 
lieved ; ^ and I am certain that He is able to keep that 
which I have committed unto Him' — and what was 
it? his soul, his w^hole being, his salvation — ^against 
that day,'^ the great day of judgment to come. 

Now, I ask you, have you gone beyond this? 
Have you yet attained to the knowledge and love 
of the Sacred Heart by the light of faith, and by the 
love of your heart, and by the personal experience of 
your lives? Do you interpret wliat befalls you in 
your life as the overruling, watchful, and loving care 
of your Divine Friend ? If so, you will never mur- 
mur, nor repine, nor rebel ; you will never chafe 
against His providence. You will be content with 
your lot, you will be ready to thank Him for every- 
thing. If the day is fair you wdll bless Him, ii the 
day is stormy you wdll be content with it ; you will 
know that nothing comes amiss, that everything that 
befalls you, w^hatsoever it be, is ordered by a Heart 
that loves you, and by a Wisdom that cannot err. 

3 2 Tim. i. 12. 
I 



114 THE SCIENCE OF THE SACRED HEART. 

4. But tliere is still another and a fourth degree 
of this knowledge of the Sacred Heart. 

There are two kinds of theology. There is a 
theology, or knowledge of God, which is acquired by 
studj^ and by elaborate intellectual toil, but that is 
the theology of Doctors. Alas for us if there were 
no other theology. There is another science of God, 
which comes not from books, but from God Himself; 
not from poring over learned pages, but by the in- 
fused light of the Holy Ghost. And that infused 
knowledge is the theology of the Saints. Perhaps 
you will say, ^ But we are not Saints. Why do you 
invite us to a knowledge w4iich is above us ?' I 
answer, * The poor and the simple and little chil- 
dren may be Saints ; for the first shall be last and the 
last shall be first in the Kingdom of God. It is not 
only those whom we account to be Saints that are so. 
God gives these infused lights to all that are hum- 
ble, to all that are clean of heart, for ^^the clean of 
heart shall see God." ' And by an infused light of 
the heart they wall see God in the world around 
them, and in all the works of God; and they will 
see God in the Church and in all its history, in all 
its fortunes, in all its sufi'erings, in its w^arfare, in 
its conflicts which the world counts to be defeats. 
God is in them all ; and the clean of heart in all 



THE SCIENCE OF THE SACRED HEART. 115 

these tilings can see His Face and the po\ver of His 
Hand, and the working of His Will. They can see 
God also in the tradition of Faith and in every letter 
of their baptismal Creed, and in all the luminous 
truths of their Catechism. These all are theology 
in short words and in a little book, but it is a 
theology which will be eternal. They se^ God too 
in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar; and 
they see Him in all their own life by an infused 
light which teaches them to know that they are in 
the hands of their Master in heaven, and that He is 
their Divine Redeemer v/ho shed His Precious Blood 
for them ; and that nothing comes which is not 
ordered for their sanctification and by His Will. 

This is the theology w^hich comes not by learned 
books. It comes down into the heart by the inspi- 
ration of the Holy Ghost. In the history of the 
Church some of the greatest lights that have ever 
been cast upon it have been shed by the humblest 
and most unlettered souls, Peter himself, the first 
Vicar of Jesus Christ, w^as a fisherman ; and from 
his day onwards God has chosen humble and pure 
souls as the channels of His illumination. He 
has chosen the handmaids of His Blessed and Im- 
maculate Mother, unlearned women, to be special 
channels of light even upon dogmas of Faith. S. 



116 THE SCIENCE OF THE SACRED ITEAET. 

Catlierine of Genoa wrote, as with a pen of light, 
upon the mystery of Purgatory : her book on the 
state of souls beyond the grave is an illumination 
visibly from the Spirit of God. S. Gertrude re- 
ceived light to know the Sacred Heart long before 
the special illumination which was given to Blessed 
Margaret .Mary, the founder of the devotion. The 
venerable Mary of Agreda, in a profuse and minuto 
exposition, has taught us the mystery of the deified 
humanity and the actions and passion of our Blessed 
Lord. No human genius could have conceived such 
teaching. It can be ascribed to nothing but super- 
natural light. Blessed Angela of Foligno tells us 
that one day when she went into the church she 
prayed for a special grace from God, and as sha 
began to say the ^ Our Father,' in a moment, she 
said, * I seemed to see the " Our Father" and every 
word of it in so clear a light and with so new an 
understanding, that I marvelled how little I had 
known it before.' And Blessed Margaret Mary was 
an unlettered woman, despised and persecuted even 
In her own convent, thought to be a visionary, and 
to be beside herself, without cultivation and without 
theology. Nevertheless she has left behind her writ- 
ings and meditations and counsels and records of 
the visions she received, and instructions to those 



THE SCIENCE OF TIIK SACRED HEART. 117 

wlio were under her charge, fall of intuitive percep- 
tion of divine truth, of subtil discernment in the 
spiritual life, of ardour and love and a surpassing 
knowledge of the Sacred Heart. 

What was the source of all this ? An infused 
light — the light that w^as shed abroad in the heart 
by the Holy Ghost. Perhaps you will say, these are 
all Saints. I answer that the little child may have 
all these things, for * out of the mouths of babes and 
sucklings' God glorifies Himself. There have been 
turning-points in the lives of Saints which have 
been determined by a word spoken by a child. S. 
Augustine tells us, when he was pondering upon the 
truths of Christianity be Tore he yet became Chris- 
tian, that one day, when he was meditating in a 
garden in profound grief and doubt, he heard, as it 
were, the voice of a child saying in a neighbouring 
garden, * Tolle lege, tolle lege, — Take and read, take 
and read.' He laid his hand upon a roll that w^as 
beside him, and opened it, and his eyes lighted on 
the words, ^ Let us walk honestly as in the day ;' 

* Put ve on the Lord Jesus Christ.'^ From that 
*/ 

moment he turned to God. 

In the history of many there are turning-points 
cf life of this kind. You can perhaps remember when 

* Eom. xiii. IB, 14. 



118 THE SCIENCE OF THE SACRED HEART. 

a word read in a book, or something tliat you heard 
from a preacher, or the chance whisper of a friend 
moved you so as nothing had ever moved you be- 
fore. Now, I ask you, do you believe that it was a 
mere human speech or mere human voice that made 
you to thrill and to listen ? Was it not an infused 
light of the Spirit of God, who is always striving with 
our hearts ? Like the rain that falls on the barren 
mountain. His grace had been flowing down into our 
hearts for years without leaving a change behind; 
but upon some one day, in some brief moment, one 
word was changed by an infused grace into a ray of 
light which pierced your understanding, and into a 
spark of fire which kindled the love of God in your 
heart. 

Here, then, is another way in which we m.ay come 
to know the Sacred Heart of Jesus. And these 
things are not beyond the reach of any of you. Any 
humble docile soul, by prayer and Holy Communion 
and kneeling before the Altar, may be ever receiv- 
ing fuller illumination to know and to understand 
the Sacred Heart with a growing intimacy and a 
more ardent love. Our Lord Himself has promised 
it : 'I confess to Thee, Father, Lord of heaven 
and earth, because Thou hast hid those things from 
the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto 



THE SCIENCE OE THE SACKED HEART . 119 

little ones' — that is, to children, to the docile, to 
the humble and the clean of heart — ^ yea, Father, 
for so hath it seemed good in Thy sight. '^ 

5. There still remains the last, a fifth, way 
of knowledge ; and that is by the manifestation of 
Himself. Hear His own words : ^ He that hath 
My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that 
loveth Me; and he that loveth Me shall be loved 
of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest 
Myself to him.'^ Now, before I venture to inter- 
pret these words, I ask you to say to yourselves, 
*What do these words mean? , "What have I 
understood them to mean T You have read these 
words a thousand times. Have you attached any 
meaning at all to them ? And, if you have, what is 
that meaning ? ^ I will manifest Myself to him.' Is 
it to the eye, or is it to the ear, or is it by a vision, 
or by a voice, or by anything that is seen, or by any- 
thing that is palpable ? Answer in your own hearts. 
First of all, no doubt our Divine Lord in these words 
promised that all who loved Him, and all who were 
faithful to Him, should see Him manifested again 
after He rose from the dead. He came visibly and 
palpably into the midst of them ; S. Thomas put his 
finger into the print of the nails ; they ate and drank 
5 S. Matt. xi. 25, 26. « S. John xiv. 21, 



120 Tllli. SCIENCE OF THE SACRED HEART, 

with Him ; they saw that He was the very same who 
had been crucified. By the sea of Tiberias they all sat 
round Him, and they ate of the broiled fish and the 
bread which He gave to each : they knev/ that it was 
their Divine Master. On the mountain they con- 
versed with Him, and while He lifted up His hands 
and blessed them, He visibly ascended up into 
heaven. This, then, may be the first fulfilment of 
the promise. Afterwards, when Stephen was stoned, 
as he yielded up the ghost, he saw heaven opened 
and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.^ Once 
more. Saul, on the way to Damascus, to persecute 
the disciples of Jesus, was struck down by an over- 
whelming light from heaven, and he saw that ^ Just 
One,'^ he saw Jesus Himself manifested; and again 
he says that, when he was called before the tribunal of 
the Emperor in Rome, * At my first answer no man 
stood with me, but all forsook me : may it not be 
laid to their charge. But the Lord stood by me and 
strengthened me.'^ This too was a manifestation 
of his Divine Master. All these things are recorded 
in the New Testament, and you believe them. Then, 
I ask you, why should not men believe what we read 
in the history of the Church, that when Peter was 
fleeing from Rome, to escape from persecution, our 
7 Acts Yii. 65. « lb. xxii. 14. « 2 Tim. iv. IG, 17. 



THE SCIENCE OF THE SACKED HEART. 121 

Divine Lord met liiai ? Peter asked, ' Lord, whither 
art Thou going ?' And Jesus said, ^ I go to Eome, 
again to be crucified/ These words turned Peter 
back to win the crown of martyrdom. I ask you 
whether you believe it or disbelieve it. It is written 
in history. It is intrinsically credible. If any 
man disbelieves it, not upon defect of evidence, but 
as intrinsically incredible, he convicts himself at 
least of the incredulity which says that these things 
happened only in the time of the Holy Scrip- 
tures. Why should the same things be credible 
then and incredible now ? I w^ould ask, Do yoxx 
believe that the dispensation of grace, and of the 
divine operations of the Church on earth, and the 
visible manifestations of our Divine Lord have 
ceased because they have not been recorded by in- 
spired waiters ? Because we have not a continuous 
history of these things, a canon of Scripture reaching 
through eighteen hundred 3^ears, do you believe that 
the things themselves have ceased to be ? If you see 
a planet sometimes obscured by a cloud, sometimes 
reappearing, do you doubt that the light is one and 
the same ? Or if you see a river bury itself in the 
earth, and, after a long track, reappear and break up 
again and again above the surface, would you dis- 
believe its identity because you cannot trace the whole 



122 THE SCIENCE OF THE SACEBD HEART. 

of its course? So is it with these supernatural 
manifestations. The whole order of the Church is 
supernatural. We read in the Life of S. Thomas of 
Canterbury that, as he was in thanksgiving after his 
Mass in the chapel of S. Stephen, in the Abbey of 
Pontigny, our Divine Lord appeared to him and 
called him by name. S. Thomas said, ' Who art 
Thou, Lord ?' and He answered, * I am Jesus, thy 
brother. My Church shall be glorified in thy blood, 
and thou shalt be glorified in Me.' Is this incredible 
to you ? But the other day, in the East, in Corea, a 
humble native Christian, whose baptismal name was 
Charles, as he returned from Pekin, twdce saw in a 
dream, as he declared, our Divine Lord, who said to 
him, ^ In the course of this year I will give thee the 
grace of shedding thy blood for the glory of My name.'^^ 
He returned home fully possessed with the belief that 
his martyrdom was close at hand. Soon after, the 
persecution broke out and he was martyred. Why 
doubt these things ? You do not doubt that the Holy 
Ghost, who came on the Day of Pentecost, is here. 
You cannot see Him, you see no tongues of fire, you 
hear no sound of the thrilling wdnd, and yet you 
believe in the perpetual operation cf God the Holy 

^" Tli( New Glories oj the Catholic Church, p. 65 (rvichardson, 
1870). 



THE SCIE^^CE OF THE SACHED EEART. 123 

Ghost. Believe, then, in the perpetual promise of our 
Divine Lord : ^ He that loveth Me shall be loved of 
My Father, and I will love liini, and will manifest 
Myself to him.' What is the life of Blessed Margaret 
Mary, chosen to be the channel of the devotion 
to the Sacred Heart, but one continual evidence 
of this wonderful and luminous manifestation of 
His presence ? He gave her seventy visions of 
Himself — seventy times, in supernatural ways. He 
manifested to her this devotion of the Sacred Heart 
in its light and in its love. These things are things 
of the Kingdom of God, supernatural indeed, because 
they are above nature, but I was going to say 
natural, because the Kingdom of God itself is divine, 
and all its laws are supernatural. But perhaps you 
will say that you do not look for these manifestations. 
No, nor do I. But I do believe that to you and to 
me our Lord does manifest Himself. And how ? Not 
palpably, it may be, as He did after the Eesurection ; 
not visibly, as He did to S. Thomas of Canterbury and 
the Blessed Margaret Mary ; but invisibly, yet per- 
sonally and truly and inwardly, every time we make a 
worthy Communion. And in the measure in which 
we live in communion with Him, in the degree in 
w^hich we are pervaded by the consciousness that we 
are united to His Sacred Heart, He will manifest 



124 THE SCIENCE OF THE SACKED HEAHT. 

Himself to us. We know that which we cannot see, 
and we taste that which we cannot touch. We know 
that He is with us, for He Himself hath said, ' He 
that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth 
ia Me and I in him.'^^ If He abide in us, how is 
He not manifest to us ? 

We have here, then, five ways of knowledge — by 
the intellect, by the heart, by experience, by the 
infused grace of the Holy Ghost, and by His in- 
scrutable manifestations, v\^hich, to such as you and 
me, are invisible and spiritual, but nevertheless per- 
sonal, real, and true. 

If, then, you would learn to know the Sacred 
Heart, you must learn it of Itself. Books will not 
teach it to you, and preachers cannot. You must 
learn it from Him who alone can teach the heart. 
The Master of that doctrine sits at the right hand 
of God, and Jesus alone can lead you on from step 
to step to know and to love Him in the five ways 
which I have endeavoured to trace. It begins with 
a secret infused grace of faith ; it ends with the 
manifestation of Himself. And there are two chief 
ways in which He teaches us to know the science of 
His Sacred Heart : the one is by a docile submission 
to His divine Voice, speaking through His Church. 

" S. Juhu yi. 57. 



THE SCIENCE OF THE SACRED HEART. 125 

There is no other channel of His Truth, there is 
no other witness of His Eevelation, there is no other 
teacher from whom we can learn His divine and 
unerring will. Therefore, to listen to the voice 
of His Church with the docility of children, and to 
learn the whole dogma of the Godhead and manhood 
of His Incarnate Person, is the first condition of the 
knowledge and love of the Sacred Heart. The other 
way is upon the altar — the Most Holy Sacrament — 
in which and from which His attractions are per- 
petually going forth, as the virtues w^ent out from 
His garment upon earth, fulfilling His words : ^ And 
I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all 
things to Myself. '^'^ There comes an illumination, 
and what I may call an articulate voice, from the 
silence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, by which 
He teaches all those who do not hinder His light. 

Worldliness is like the dust w^hich darkens the 
sight of the eye. ' Love not the w^orld, nor the things 
which are in the world. If any man love the world, 
the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that 
is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, and 
the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, 
which is not of the Father, but is of the world. '^^ 
And they that have these clouds in them cannot know 

»-' S. John xii. 32. i- 1 S. John ii. 15, 16. 



12G THE SCIENCE OF THE SACKED HEART, 

and love the Sacred Heart. And I must add that 
levity, carelessness, shallowness of heart, hinder 
the entrance of His light. Some people have not 
sufficient gravity or earnestness to understand divine 
truth. No hearts are more blind than the light and 
careless. 

Therefore open your hearts wide, be candid as 
the day. ^ If thine eye be single, thine Avhole body 
shall be full of light ; if thine eye be double, thine 
whole body shall be full of darkness. If, then, the 
light that is in thee be darkness, how great shall 
that darkness be.'^^ Be perfectly sincere and upright 
with our Divine Master ; let there be no false sur- 
renderings of the heart, no secret reservations, keep- 
ing anything in yourselves back from His service. 
Cut off the right hand, pluck out the right eye, if 
they stand between you and your fidelity to Him. 
Out of generosity He gave the last drop of His Blood 
for you, keeping nothing back from you : so be and 
so do for Him in turn. 

In this way, if you do not reach the highest 
degrees of knowledge, you will at least be ascending 
up that ladder of which the foot is on earth and the 
head in heaven. It reaches the Sacred Heart itself; 
and in them who go up by these degrees of know- 

'^» S. Matt. vi. 22, 23. 



THE SCIENCE OF THE SACRED HEART. 127 

ledge and love shall be fulfilled the words of our 
Lord : * I am the gate : by Me, if any man shall 
enter in, he shall be saved; and he shall go in and 
he shall go out, and he shall find pasture. '^^ 

w s. Jolm X. 9. 



THE LAST WILL OF THE SACRED HEART, 



THE LAST WILL OF THE SACRED HEAET. 



With desire I have desired to eat this Pasch with you hefore I 
suffer. S. Luke xxii. 15. 

I HAVE hitherto spoken of the Sacred Heart as the 
interpretation of the mystery of God Incarnate ; and 
next, as the centre of all doctrine, and therefore as 
the source of all devotion ; and lastly, we have seen 
the ways in which we come to know, and therefore 
to love, the Sacred Heart. We have now to consider 
the character of our Divine Lord as it is manifested 
in the Sacred Heart. 

I have said that there are two ways by which our 
Divine Lord teaches us to know and to love Him. 

The first way by which He teaches us to know His 
Sacred Heart is the living voice — divine, and there- 
fore unerring — of the only Church of God. That liv- 
ing voice, by its articulate and infallible utterance, 
teaches us the knowledge of the doctrines of faith, 
and mealies them definite aid certain in our intellect. 



132 THE LAST WILL OF THE SACRED HEABT, 

The other way whereby we come to the love of the 
Sacred Heart is, as I have said, the Most Holy Sa- 
crament of the Altar. Now we will take this latter 
point ; and my purpose will be to show how the Most 
Holy Sacrament is a revelation of His character. 

I can find no more explicit words in proof of 
what I have said than those which I have taken 
from the lips of our Divine Lord in the Gospel of 
S. Luke. He said, * With desire I have desired' — 
that is, by a Hebrew reduplication of the words, I 
have intensely desired — ^ to eat this Pasch with you 
before I suffer.' That last Paschal Supper was a 
time to which He had looked with an intense longing. 
In one word, it was at that time and in that place 
and in that night when He was betrayed that our 
Divine Lord instituted this Most Holy Sacrament of 
His love. It is the revelation of His love to us. It 
is more ; it is the perpetual application of His love 
to our salvation. It is also the object of His love, 
and it ought therefore to be the object of our love 
in return. This is the point to which I wish to call 
your thoughts. 

Let us, then, consider what were the reasons why 
our Divine Lord so intensely desired to partake of 
that Paschal Supper. ' 

1. First, because it was the end of His sorrows. 



THE LAST WILL OF THE SACRED HEART. 133 

His whole life on earth was one continuous sorrow — 
a ceaseless sorrow that was growing in volume and 
intensity for the thirty-three years of His life. The 
sorrows of our Divine Lord began from the first 
moment of His Incarnation. In that same instant 
the deified soul of Jesus had its full capacity. It 
was not in a state of imperfect development ; it was 
not in a condition of unconsciousness, in which fu- 
ture knowledge was to be infused or acquired little 
by little ; but from the beginning, when the human 
soul was assumed by the Son of God, in that moment 
it entered fully and altogether into a complete know- 
ledge of the life that was before it. In that moment 
He foresaw the whole future of His life and death ; 
in that moment the human intelligence, deified by 
assumption into God, foreknew the whole Passion 
that was to come ; and by divine and human know- 
ledge knowing the sorrow that He was to enter 
upon, He deliberately, by a divine choice, and by the 
consent of His human will, for t]ie redemption of 
the world, made that life of sorrow His own. And 
therefore the sorrows of the Son of God were like 
ours indeed, because they were human sorrows ; but 
they were not like ours in this, that He foresaw them 
all ; but ours we do not foresee. Through the whole 
of our life He, in His mercv, hides from us the 



131 THE LAST WILL OF THE SACRED HExVRT. 

things that we shall have to endure— the many trials, 
the pains, the afflictions of our lives are hid from 
us until they come. If we ever foresee them, it is 
only little by little, and as they approach us. But 
He saw all before Him. And we know that the 
suffering is increased by the clearness and the dis- 
tinctness with which we foresee the sufferings that 
are to come. When we foresee them we suffer them 
twice over — once in foresight and once in reality. 
And therefore, in His mercy He has ordained that 
our foresight of sorrows should be but little. He 
withholds it till the moment of suffering is come ; 
and when that moment comes He gives us strength 
to endure it. Not so with Himself. He foresaw 
through His whole life the future before He suffered, 
and therefore in this way He suffered twice all the 
griefs and sufferings of His life. At last, when 
that night of the Paschal Supper was come. His sor- 
rows were at the full, and He knew that the turn 
in the tide was near. The flood was at its height, 
and it was about to ebb. He had sorrowed for three- 
and-thirty years, and He was come to the time when 
His Passion should be accomplished, and He should 
sorrow no more. He had foreseen that last night ; 
He had foreseen the sadness of that last meeting and 
of that last farewell. He had foreseen all the circum- 



THE LAST WILL OF THE SACRED HEART. 135 

stances of His Passion; His betrayal by a friend 
who was false ; His betrayal by a kiss, the token of 
a love which was still more false. He had foreseen 
all the agonies in the garden under the shade of the 
olive-trees — all that night of buffeting and scoffing 
and scourging and mockery. He had looked forward 
to all these things, and had said, ^ I have a baptism 
wherewith I am to be baptised, and how am I strait- 
ened until it be accomplished.'^ To the traitor He 
said, 'What thou dost do quickly;'^ meaning that 
He had an intense desire to enter into that last 
conflict, and that the last conflict should be over. 
Here, then, was the first reason : it was the thirst of 
the Sacred Heart to suffer for us — an intense desire 
for the redemption of the world, and a sinless im- 
patience for the end of His sorrow unto death. 

2. But, once more, the night of that Last Sup- 
per was a time full of sadness, but full of sweetness 
too. It was full of sadness, because the hour of His 
Passion was come. It was full of sweetness, because 
He was for the last time gathered with those whom 
He loved. He was there with His disciples, with 
those friends, weak and ignorant, and yet loving and 
fast, who had cleaved to Him for three long years, 
through evil report and good report, through shame 

» S. Luke xii. oO. = S. John xiii. 27, 



13G THE LAST WILL OF THE SACBED HEART. 

and through danger. Many had gone back from 
Him, but they had remained faithful. He was sit- 
ting in the midst of them, and interchanging with 
them the tokens of their mutual love. John lay 
upon His bosom, and the others were conversing 
^vith Him. He was speaking to them of a coming 
trial, and He said, ^Because I have said these 
things sorrow has filled your heart. Let not your 
hearts be troubled.' 'You shall lament and weep, 
but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made 
sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.'^ 
And when He began to speak of going away their 
hearts were more deeply troubled ; and He consoled 
them under that sudden fear, saying, 'In My Father's 
house there are many mansions,' 'I will come again,' 
and ' I will not leave you orphans : I will come to 
you.'^ And they gazed upon one another like men 
who feel that the shadow of some great change is 
sensibly falling upon them. They were already sor- 
rowful, but they had forebodings of some greater 
sorrow yet to come. Such moments have a strange 
sweetness even in their sadness and foar. For it 
was as the time of a last farewell ; and farewells are 
Bad indeed, but sweet bevond all words. You have 
known it, when friends bid farewell to go into far- off 
8 S. John xiv. 1, xvi. 20. < Ihid. xiv. 2. 



THE LAST WILL OF THE SACRED HEART. 137 

lands, perhaps never to meet again ; how they watch 
together through the long last night, and converse 
with one another until the sun rises : and those last 
hours, though they are overcast by the shadow of a 
parting so soon to come, have nevertheless a sweet- 
ness that no time in all their memory can surpass. 
The recollection of those last hours is treasured up 
through life for ever. Or you may have known it 
in parting from mother, or sister, or brother, when 
you were taking a last farewell; how, in those last 
moments, some token of love has been given to you, 
the least memorial of the past — it may be a book, or 
a flower dried within its leaves, or something that 
they have familiarly used — which will for ever recall 
their presence. And if in that moment they have 
given you the expression of a wish, a word would be 
a commandment which you would obey for ever. 
Though they had given only a sign of their will, 
that Avill would be a command which you would 
obey to the end of life. It was in such an hour 
that Jesus took bread and blessed it, and brake it 
and gave it to them, and said, ^ Do this for a com- 
memoration of Me.' It was the command of that 
dying love, the last commandment, I may say, that 
He ever gave in memory of Himself ; the token of 
His dying love, to be the memorial of it and the test 



133 THE LAST WILL OF THE SACRED HEART. 

of ours ill return. And therefore it is that the Church 
of God every morning commemorates the Passion of 
its Divine Head ; and therefore it is the faithful, with 
loving hearts, love the Holj Mass. It Vv^as in that 
last hour of the Paschal Supper that Jesus insti- 
tuted that Most Holy Sacrament; to be to us the 
last will and testament of His Sacred Heart. 

8. Again, in that hour and in that action He 
offered up the Lamb that was slain from the begin- 
ning of the world. The atoning Sacrifice predestined 
from all eternity was then offered up. The true 
Lamb was there. The types and the shadows passed 
away, the reality was come. Jesus, without spot 
or blemish, the Lamb immaculate and hol}^, was 
brought up into the courts of the Temple. From 
the first moment of the Incarnation the Son of God 
assumed His eternal priesthood ; the Divine Infant 
was the Priest of the order of Melchisedech, the 
great High-Priest of the whole human race, who 
makes atonement for the sin of the world. In the 
moment of the Incarnation He was consecrated : He 
assumed His sacerdotal vestments, and put upon 
Him the stole of His priesthood. The three-and- 
thirty years of His life were sacerdotal — a life of 
self-oblation, of reparation, and of atonement. He 
was not only Priest, but Yictirn : He was a sacrifice 



THE LAST WILL OF THE SACRED IIEArtT. 139 

all tlirougli His life; and ^Yllat was that sacrifice? 
It was what, in the spirit of prophecy, He had de- 
clared : ' Sacrifice and oblations and holocausts for 
sin Thou wouldst not.' * In the head of the book it 
is written of Me, Behold, I come to do Thy will, 
God.'^ The sacrifice was the life-long oblation of 
His will. It was the oblation of Hi3 perfect will in 
perfect obedience and perfect patience even unto 
death. This it was that redeemed the world. And 
from all eternity this oblation was accepted ; and from 
the beginning of the world this sacrifice was foreseen ; 
and for the merits of this sacrifice all the inspirations 
and efi^usions of grace that have saved mankind, be- 
fore He came, were given. 

In this last Paschal Supper, when Jesus sat at 
the table, and took bread, blessed it, broke it, gave 
it, and said, ' This is My Body,' and the chalice, when 
He had blessed it, and said, ^ This is My Blood,' He 
began the act of oblation, finished upon Calvary, which 
redeemed the world. He ofl'ered that sacrifice first 
without bloodshedding ; but it was the same true, 
proper, and propitiatory sacrifice which redeems the 
world, because therein He offered Himself. We read 
in the Gospels that ' No man laid hands on Him, be- 
cause His hour was not yet come ;'^ that is, no man 

5 Heb. X. 8, 9. « S. John vii. 30. 



140 THE LAST WILL OF THE SACRED TIEAr.T. 

had power to take Him until He delivered Himself into 
their hands. We read again that the servants of the 
high-priest who came out to seize Him in the garden 
of Gethsemani, Vviien they heard Him say, 'I am 
He,'^ went backward and fell to the ground — the 
majesty of His divine presence awed them. They 
were cast at His feet in fear ; and in proof that, vrhen 
they took Him and bound Him, it was of His own free 
will. When He stood before Pilate, He said once 
more, ' Thou shouldst not have any power against 
Me, unless it were given thee from above. '^ Bound 
as He was, still no man had power over Him. 
Twelve legions of angels would have surrounded 
Him: they would have cut His bonds and set Him 
free, if it had been His divine will. Therefore at His 
Last Supper He made a free and voluntary offering 
of Himself. He had not yet shed His Blood, but 
throughout His whole life He had offered His will, and 
He now offered His death ; and that which He began 
at the Last Supper he accomplished on the morrow 
upon Calvary by the shedding of Blood ; for that 
shedding of Blood was the completion of His sacri- 
fice. Nevertheless, when He sat at the table in the 
guest-chamber. He truly offered Himself, the one 
true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice that takes 
' S. John xYiiL 6. « Ibid. xix. 11. 



THE LAST WILL OF THE SACRED HEART. 1-11 

away the sin of tlie world. The merits of the In- 
carnate Son were there : they were sufficient at that 
time to take away the sin of all mankind if it had 
not been His will to die. He died to complete the 
sacrifice, to fill up its perfect propitiation hy the 
last gift that He could give, by the last drop of His 
Precious Blood. 

"When He said, ^ This is My Body,' and 'This is 
My Blood,' He instituted the Holy Sacrifice ; and when 
He said, * This do in commemoration of Me,' He con- 
secrated His Apostles to be priests, to offer for ever 
that same sacrifice of Himself. Therefore, what the 
Church offers, day by day, is the continuance of that 
same divine act which Jesus at that hour began. It 
is nothing new, nothing distinct from it, nothing 
added to iu, for in ioself it was perfect — a Divine 
Sacrifice admitting: of no addition. The Sacrifice of 
the Altar is the same sacrifice prolonged for ever. 
He who offered Himself then offers Himself now. 
He offered Himself then by His own hands ; He 
offers Himself now by the hands of His priesthood. 
There is now no shedding of blood — that was accom- 
plished once for all upon Calvary. The action of 
the Last Supper looked onward to that action on 
Calvary, as the action of the Holy Mass looks back- 
ward upon it. As the shadow is cast by the rising 



142 THE LAST VvILL OF TPIE SACKED HEAPtT. 

sun towards the west, and as the shadow is cast by 
the setting sun towards the east, so the Holy Mass 
is, I may say, the shadow of Calvary, but it is also the 
reality. That which was done in the Paschal Supper 
in the guest-chamber, and that which is done upon 
the altar in the Holy Mass, is one and the same act — 
the offering of Jesus Christ Himself, the true, proper, 
propitiatory, and only Sacrifice for the sin of the 
world. And there, in that Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, 
is the Sacred Heart in all the fulness of its atone- 
ment, in all the propitiation of its Precious Blood, 
in all the worship and adoration of its praise and 
thanksgiving, in all the power of its intercession by 
the infinite merits of the Incarnate Son. There upon 
the paten and there in the chalice every morning is 
the Sacred Heart in all the plenitude of its redeeming 
power, of its infinite merits, of its unutterable love, 
of its exquisite tenderness for sinners. It is indeed 
a commemoration, because it is the perpetual visible 
memorial of a reality; and it is also the reality itself, 
because it is His Body and Blood ; that is, it is the 
Eeal Presence of Jesus, God and man. It is also the 
application of His Death and Passion to the souls of 
those who believe. The Sacred Heart, then, is there in 
the Holy Mass, teaching us by Itself to know His love. 
4. But still further: He desired that last Paschal 



THE LAST Vv'ILL OF THE SACllED TTl^AP.T. 143 

Supper, because in that hour IIo instituted a new 
way of perpetual presence in the midst of us. lie 
had promised His disciples, ^ It is expedient for you 
that I go ; for if I go not, the Paraclete vdll not come 
unto you; but if I go, I will send Him unto you.' 
He promised more than this. He said that He would 
not leave them orphans, but that IIo would come 
to them again. And He said still moi-e : ' Behold, 
I am with you all days, even to the consummation of 
the world.' He has fulfilled this promise in many 
ways ; but, above all. He has fulfilled it in the Holy 
Sacrament of the Altar. The Council of Trent, ^ in 
the Catechism which it puts into the hands of 
its priests, speaks thus : ' Jesus having loved His 
own wdiile He w^as in the world, loved them unto 
the end ; and now, knowing that the time vvT.s come 
that He should depart unto the Father, in order that 
He might never be absent from His own — that is, 
that He might never be absent from His Church 
— He ordained a divine and w^onderful pledge of 
His love, and by a counsel inexplicable to us. He ac- 

^ * Cum enim Dominus dilexisset suos, in finem dilexit eos : ciijus 
quidem amoris ufc divinum aliqnod atque admirabile pigmis daret, 
sciens horum jam advenisse, ut transiret ex hoc mundo ad Patrem, 
ne iiilo unquam tempore a suis ab^sset, inexplicabili consilio, quod 
omnem naturas ordinem et conditionem saperat, perfecit.' Catech. 
Horn. p. ii. c. iv. 2. 



14-1 THE LAST WILL OF THE SACKED IIEAKT. 

complislied this mystery of His presence in a way that 
transcends the order and the conditions of nature/ 
The meaning is this : there are three ways in which 
God is present in the workl. He was present from 
the beginning as God in a divine manner ; next, He 
v;as present when He came, into the world, incarnate, 
in a divine and human manner ; lastly. He is present 
now in the world, in a divine and human and a sacra- 
mental manner. He was present in the v/orld as God 
from the beginning, in a divine manner ; for * all 
things were made by Him, and without Him was 
made nothing that was made ; He was in the world, 
and the world knew Him not.' He was in the world, 
by His essence sustaining all things that He had 
made, by His presence ruling and giving laws to 
them all, and by His power preserving them all. 
And His presence in the world was luminous, not to 
the eyes of faith only, but to pure reason, if only the 
intelligence in man were not darkened by sin. Like 
as the sun in the heavens is luminous, resplendent, 
and self-evident, so the existence and the presence 
of God in the world would be, if men had the will to 
see. But there are three causes why men are blind. 
One is, that the light is too great — it overwhelms 
them ; and the more light the less men see. The 
next is, because through their own «in the light fails 



THE LAST WILL OF THE SACRED IIEAr/r. 1 15 

to give them light. * They have eyes, and they see 
not.' And the last is, that they darken their own 
sight. They become judicially blind, like Elymas the 
magician. The first presence of God in the world, 
then, is in a divine manner ; the next was by Incar- 
nation, by the presence of His two natures of God 
and man in one Person : it was therefore divine and 
human ; it included all the firsfc and it superadded 
another, and that other was a palpable and visible 
presence in the midst of men, visible to their eyes 
and palpable to their sense. S. John says, ' That 
which was from the beginning, wdiicli we have heard; 
which we have seen with our eyes ; which we have 
looked upon, and our hands have handled. '^^ He 
came as a man born of a Virgin ; He conversed 
among men. He ate and drank with them, He dwelt 
in the midst of them. He hungered and thirsted. 
He was weary, and He wrought miracles amongst 
them. He w^as Himself above the order and the con- 
ditions of nature, because He was the Incarnate God. 
Our humanity was assumed into God. Therefore 
Jesus w^as above the order and the condition of 
nature ; and being above the order of nature. He 
said, ' No man hath seen God at any time, but the 
Only-begotten, who is in the bosom of His Father' 

'•« 1 S. John i. 1. 
L 



IIG THE LAST WILL OF THE SACKED HE ART. 

• — at the moment He was speaking — ^Ile liatli de- 
clared Him.' ' No man hath ascended up into heaven, 
save He only that came down from heaven, the 
Son of Man, who, while I speak, is in heaven. '-^^ 
He was therefore in the w^orld, and yet above all the 
order and condillons of the world. More than tins. 
He had dominion over nature, being its Creator. 
He had power to multiply the bread in the wilderness, 
because it was the creature of His hands; He had 
power to give sight to the blind, because it was 
He who created the eye ; He Jiad power to restore 
hearing to the deaf, because the hearing ear was 
of His own making ; He had power to cleanse the 
leper, because He had made man, aiid could cleanse 
the w^ork of His own hands ; He had power to walk 
upon the water, because when He m.ade the earth He 
made the sea likewise ; He had power to raise the 
dead, because He was the Giver of life. Therefore 
He was above all the conditions of nature, and had 
dominion over them all, for He was God. Neverthe- 
less, when He was in the midst of men, the Jews 
thought that He was the son of a carpenter, because 
they judged only by sense. Nicodemus interpreted 
sense by reason. He knew that He must be a teacher 
sent from God, for no man could do the miracles that 

" S. Joliii iii. 13. 



THE LAST WILL OF THE SACRED HEART. 147 

He did, except God were with Him. Peter knew Him 
to be Christ, the Son of the Living God ; hut not by 
sense alone, nor by reason alone, but by reason 
illuminated bv faith. ' Flesh and blood hath not re- 
vealed it to thee, but My Father who is in heaven.' 

But there is another way of the presence of God 
in the midst of us now, which is divine, human, and 
sacramental ; and in the mystery of the altar there 
is Jesus, God and man, above the order and the con- 
ditions of nature, as He was when He was visible 
and palpable on earth. He is no longer yisible and 
no longer palpable, because He is present under the 
veil of the Most Holy Sacrament.^^ According to the 
natural manner of existence, and in the dimensions of 
His human nature, He is in glory at the right hand of 
God ; but according to the sacramental mode of Flis 
existence, which admits of neither dimensions, nor 
magnitude, nor locality, nor of the order or the con- 
ditions of nature. He is in the Most Holy Sacrament. 
He is there, as the holy Council of Trent says, not 
as in a place which, being circumscribed, circum- 

'2 ' Neque enim lia)c inter se pngnant, ut ipse Salvator noster 
semper ad dexteram Patris in coelis assideat juxta modum existendi 
naturalem, et ut multis nihilominns aliis in locis sacramentaliter 
prsssens sua substantia nobis adsit ea existendi ratione, quam etsi 
verbis exprimere vix possumus, possibilem tamen esse Deo cogita- 
tione per fidem illastrata assequi possumus.' Cone. Trid. Sess. xiii. 
ca-i. i. 



148 THE LAST WILL OF THE SACRED HEAIIT. 

Bcribes all that it contains ; but, being the infinite 
God, He is there without circumscription ; there in 
very truth, there in reality, there as God and man, 
nevertheless not contained by circumscription of 
place, nor subject to the conditions or order of nature. 
You ask me how He is there. He is there as God is 
everywhere ; and where He is in His Godhead there 
He is in His manhood also. How is His manhood 
present ? It is present, as the Council of Trent says, 
as it is a substance.^^ The foot of a man placed 
upon the earth is the very reality of his presence, yet 
no man will say that the footprint circumscribes 
the man ; nevertheless it is a proof that he is there. 
This is feeble, imperfect, and remote from the divine 
reality ; still is enough to make this divine fact in 
some way comprehensible to our minds illuminated by 
faith. But men judge of the Most Holy Sacrament as 
the Jews judged of our Divine Lord's presence when 
they saw Him. The v^^orld, judging by sense, tells us 
it is bread and wine ; for the men of sense have no 
spiritual intuition, as the Apostle has before declared 
of them : * The sensual' or the animal man — that is, 

i-" ' Cliristi coi-pus in Eucliaristia non est lit in loco. Etenim locus 
res ipsas consequitur, ut magnitiicline aliqiia prseditse sunt : Cliristnm 
vero Dominum ea ratione in Sacramento esse non dicimiis, utmag- 
nuR ant parvus est, quod ad quantitatera pertinet, sed ut substantia 
est.' Caterh. uGm. p. ii. c. iv. -i-i. 



THE LAST Vv'ILL OF THE SACRED HEART. 1-19 

the man of sense — ^ perceivetli not the things of the 
spirit of God, neither can he discern them, for they 
are spiritually examined'^^ or discerned. They aro 
known only to the spiritual man. A man who has 
reason says, ^ Under this appearance of bread and 
wane there are the substances of bread and wine ;' and 
he contends that the doctrine of Transubstantiation 
cannot be true, because bread and wine must have 
each their proper natural substance. If, indeed, it 
were in the order of nature, reason would be right ; 
but the Council of Trent begins by affirming thatat 
is above the order and the conditions of nature. The 
bread and wine before consecration are bread and 
wine, subject to the order of nature alone ; but when 
consecrated by the Word of God, Who in the begin- 
ning said, ^Let the light be, and the light was,' at 
His divine words, ' This is My Body, this is My 
Blood,' they pass from the order of nature to the 
supernatural order : they are what God calls them ; 
for what He calls them, that they are thereby made. 
By faith therefore illuminating reason we know thi-^, 
that what to sense is bread and wine, and Vvdiat to 
natural reason has natural substance, to the light of 
faith, and to reason judging by faith, is the Body 
and the Blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore we say, 

1* 1 Cor. ii. U. 



150 THE LAST AYILL OF THE SACKED IIEAHT. 

in the solemn rhythm of the Church, ' on the Cross 
the Godhead lay hid;' but here, 'in the Most 
Holy Sacrament, both Godhead and manhood are 
hidden.' But where the manhood is, there is the 
Sacred Heart. Under the veil of the Most Holy 
Sacrament, as a vesture hanging between His pre- 
sence and our sight, there is the Word Incarnate ; 
and out from that vesture there goes forth the virtue 
of healing, as it went out from the hem of His gar- 
ment when the poor woman touched it visibly on 
earth. 

5. And lastly, in that Paschal Supper He also 
instituted for us a new way of union with Himself. 
We were the children of the first Adam, and we par- 
took of the substance of his flesh and blood ; we 
were of his flesh and of his bone, because we were 
born, according to the oriler of nature, unto sin and 
death. When, by regeneration of the Holy Ghost and 
by the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, we are 
made members of the second Adam, v>e partake of 
His Divine Flesh and Blood ; we are made bone of 
His Bone, flesh of His Flesh ; and we are partakers 
of His substance unto life and immortality. What 
is the world dreaming about when it contends wi^i 
such heat and vehemence that the Sacrament of the 
Altar is but a representation ? Is the world content 



THE LAST WILL OF THE SACRED HEART. 151 

with a shadow instead of a reality? And does it desire 
to have not ar reality but a shadow for its inheritance ? 
What does the world mean by disputing away the 
Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Most Holy Sacra- 
ment ? It is a strange infatuation. If you saw a man 
squandering his inheritance, you would think him to 
be a fool ; if you saw him casting from him precious 
stones and pearls of great price, you v>^ould think him 
a madman. Why, then, shall we think the world 
wise in trying to persuade itself, and to persuade 
others, that the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar is 
nothing but a shadow, and not a divine reality ? And 
if the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar be only a 
shadow, I would ask, is the Incarnation only a shadow? 
There were heretics in the beginning who were called 
PhantasiastsB, because they taught that the manhood 
of Jesus was only an appearance. And how did the 
Christians and the Martyrs of those days answer 
them ? They said that the Incarnation was real and 
true, as the Flesh and Blood of Jesus in the Most Holy 
Eucharist is real and true. They argued from the 
reality of the Most Holy Sacrament to the reality of 
the Incarnation. We argue from the reality of the In- 
carnation to the reality of His Sacramental Presence. 
Nay, more. I would ask the wise men of the world, 
who still call themselves Christians, do they believe 



152 lilE LAST WILL OF THE SACRED HEART. 

the Resurrection to be a figure or a reality ? Sliall we 
not rise in our own bodies ? Shall we not be clothed 
in these same bodies of ours, only glorified and im- 
mortal? And if the Incarnation be a reality and 
the Resurrection be a reality, what is the mystery of 
the Most Precious Body and Blood of Jesus Christ 
but the link between these two realities and the 
means whereby we are made members of His sub- 
stance, and thereby partakers of Him who has said, 
^I am the Resurrection and the Life'? Therefore 
our Lord has instituted the Holy Eucharist as a 
means whereby we are made partakers of His very 
substance. We belong to the second Adam, as His 
lineal descendants, as members and partakers of His 
Flesh and of His Bone. We are incorporated into 
Him. Hear His own words : ' Unless you eat My 
Flesh and drink My Blood, j^ou shall have no life in 
you;' and lest there should be any error, or evasion 
of His meaning, He added, ' As the living Father 
hath sent Me, and I live by the Father, so he that 
eateth Me, even he shall live by Me.'^^ Hov7 does the 
Eternal Son live by the Eternal Father, but because 
the Son is consubstantial with the Father ? And 
how do we who eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of 
Jesus Christ live by Him, but because we are m.ade 

15 S. John Yi. 08. 



THE LAST WILL OF THE SACRED HEART. 153 

consubstantial with Him ; that is, we partake of His 
very humanity, and that humanity is our own, deified 
in His Person ? This is the Flesh which He gives 
for the life of the world, the living Bread wdiich 
came down from heaven. And as we are incorporated 
into Him, we are made to be of one heart wdth Him : 
' He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood 
abide th in Me and I in him.' He takes our heart 
into His Heart, and places His Heart in ours ; there- 
by He makes us to love the things He loves, and to 
hate the things He hates, and to have no will but 
His. He dwells in those in wdiom His Sacred 
Heart abides ; He makes them to be His dwelling- 
place ; and if He dwells in them He changes them 
into His own likeness ; He makes them to be like 
Himself in mind, in thought, in wdll, and in affec- 
tion, that they may be like Him in life. There can 
be no external conformity to our Master if there be 
not first an internal transformation of the heart into 
His likeness. And therefore Holy Communion in 
the Most Precious Body and Blood of Jesus Christ is 
the way to know and to learn the love of the Sacred 
Heart to us. By receiving it into ours, and by 
being conformed to His likeness, we love Him again ; 
for it is by likeness that we know, and by knowing 
that we love Him. 



154 THE LAST WILL OF THE SACKED HEART. 

Tins it is that makes the iTinty of the Church in- 
dissoluble. In all ages, over all the world, all the 
action and malice of men, all the power of the 
gates of hell, all the audacities of heresy, all the 
cleaTings of schism, all the seductions of false science, 
all the powers of the world, and all the persecutions 
of Satan have never been able to prevail against the 
indissoluble unity of the one only Church, Catholic 
and Roman. It is because the Sacred Heart of Jesus 
in the Most Blessed Sacrament is the centre of all 
hearts. All who are faithful are united to Him : as 
flames mingle with flames and the multitudes become 
one, so the unity, supernatural and spiritual, of all 
those that are united to His Sacred Heart is above the 
order and the conditions of nature, and the gates of 
hell cannot prevail against it. Shall I ask, "Why is it 
that every other system that has pulled down the 
altar, rifled the tabernacle, cast off the Holy Sacri- 
fice, denied the Real Presence, — shall I ask w^hy it 
is that these systems (call them what they may), 
dignified by worldly wealth, by legal authority, by 
great learning, by social power, as they visibly are, 
cannot hold the souls of men together ? They crumble 
perpetually, they are wasting every day by a continual 
decay, losing on the right hand and on the left the 
hearts and wills which outwardly adhere to them, and 



THE LAST ^\ILL OF THE SACRED HEART. 155 

are only kept together by the strong bond of worldly 
interest or by the imperious penalties of law. Why 
is it ? It is because where they w^orship there is no 
lamp burning before the altar, no tabernacle, no 
Sacramental Presence. The Incarnate Word is not 
there. The centre of all unity is gone ; the Sacred 
Heart does not dwell in the midst of them. They 
have rejected the Eeal and Sacramental Presence of 
Jesus Christ. 

Now I have endeavoured to give the reasons why 
our Divine Lord so desired that Paschal night. It 
was the end of His sorrow^s ; it w^as the hour of His 
last sad but sweet farewell ; it was the offering of the 
Sacrifice that takes away the sin of the world ; it 
began His new w^ay of presence in the midst of us ; it 
opened His new and intimate WT^y of union with us 
for ever. Let us therefore sum up what I have been 
saying. 

1. If any man loves our Divine Lord, he will love 
the Most Holy Sacrament ; and ' if any man love not 
our Lord Jesus, let him be anathema maran atha.'^^ 
This is the sentence of the Apostle, and the sentence 
of the Apostle is the sentence of the Holj^ Ghost. 
The Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar is the presence 
of Jesus. It was ordained for this purpose, to keep 

1" 1 Cor. xvi. 22. 



158 THE LAST WILL OF THE SACRED HEART. 

alive in the midst of His disciples the sense that 
He is never absent; and wherever the Blessed 
Sacrament is in all the world there is Jesus Christ. 
It matters not whether in the guest-chamber, or 
deep in the Catacombs, or on the mountain- side, or 
in the forests of wild lands, in the hovels where we 
in England begin our missions, or in the stately 
basilicas of Eome, — there is the Blessed Sacrament, 
and there is Jesus ; and there is shed abroad a 
sense of His presence, which pervades every place 
and fills every heart ; ay, even those who do not fully 
believe, when they come into our sanctuaries, feel 
something strange ; something thrills in them, there 
is a vibration in their heart, a consciousness that 
they have entered into a presence that may be felt. 
They do not feel it elsewhere : they cannot account 
for it, they cannot deny it. But of the stately vaults 
under which the Blessed Sacrament once was, and is 
no longer, what shall I say ? There is in them a sense 
of absence — an absence which may be felt. All is 
empty and void. No man who has ever known the 
sense of what it is to enter a Catholic church can go 
into one of the ancient minsters, the noble cathe- 
drals which the faith of our ancestors reared in 
England, without saying : ^ There is a sensible absence 
here ; some one who ought to be in this place, and 



THE LAST ^YILL OF THE SACRED HEART. 157 

to reign in ifc as the Lord of the sanctuary, is here 
no longer. The tokens of Him who once reigned in 
this sanctuary speak with an almost articulate voice/ 
It is like our churches on Good Friday, when the 
altars are stripped, and the lights are out, and the 
tabernacle is empty and the door left open wide, that 
all men may know and feel ' He is not here.' 

2. They who love the Blessed Sacrament love it 
also because it is the most intimate way of conversing 
with Jesus. We converse with Him in our private 
chamber in our prayers ; we converse with Him when 
we pray anywhere all the day long, by the road- 
side, or in the throng of men. But what is that to 
kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament ? If every 
day you could speak for a quarter of an hour with 
your angel-guardian it would leave an impression on 
you all the day long. S. Stephen's face shone like 
an angel's ; so if you could stand visibly face to face 
with your guardian-angel for a quarter of an hour 
in the morning your face would shine, and people 
would know that you had been conversing with some 
bright and blessed presence higher than your own. 
Or if you could daily see one of the Saints — the 
beloved disciple, who lay upon the bosom of Jesus at 
Supper — if you could see him, day by day, even for a 
passing moment, what an impression it would leave 



158 THE LAST WILL OF THE SACRED HEART. 

npon you. And yet, do you not see here the Lord 
of Angels and the King of Saints morning after 
morning in the Holy Mass ? and may jou not at any 
time come and kneel down here in His presence ? and 
may you not converse with Him, not for a quarter 
of an hour only, but as long as you will ? You may 
v/eary of His presence; He is never wearied of yours. 
3. And once more. If you love the Blessed Sacra- 
ment, the Blessed Sacrament by its own light will 
teach you to know and to love the Sacred Heart ; and 
the Sacred Heart will open itself, and will teach us to 
know its own character. We shall know all its love 
— the love which is from eternity to eternity; the love 
of ineffable divine fervour, of unspeakable human 
tenderness ; the Love that died for us. We shall 
know too the commandment of that Love when He was 
about to die for us. And we shall learn not only His 
love, but His patience ; for He abides in the midst 
of us for ever. Sinners as we are — cold, ungrate- 
ful, reckless, and heedless as we are — He still dwells 
in the midst of us in His humility, veiled, out of 
sight, slighted and disbelieved, passed without a 
sign of recognition by the multitudes that go by Him. 
There He is, in His generosity, giving away grace 
after grace. We become bankrupt through our fault 
and sin ; we go back to Him : He restores to us the 



THE LAST WILL OF THE SACRED HEART. 159 

graces that we have lost ; more than this, He pours 
out upon us even more grace than we have wasted, 
for His generosity is inexhaustible. He does not 
' break the bruised reed' nor ' quench the smoking 

flax.' He waits for vou. He has waited for vou 

1/ « 

from your childhood and in your youth and in your 
manhood ; in all your wanderings He has been wait- 
ing for you still ; trying to draw you tow^ards Him, 
that some day, at last, you may come to true repent- 
ance, and that some day before you die you may be 
His disciple. And in all this see what I may call 
His unsuspiciousness. Friends suspect one another, 
they form rash judgments of one another, they are 
always harbouring hard thoughts of each other, they 
draw to themselves pictures and characters of other 
men, and seldom in their favour. How does the 
Sacred Heart deal with us ? He knows everything 
that is in us, and yet He speaks to us with the 
same unchangeable love and the same unalterable 
patience as if w^e w^ere within altogether what we 
show ourselves without. What a perfect love, then, 
is this divine and human character of our Master. 

4. But if we love Him, we must bear the fruits that 
are like Him. ^ The fruit of the Spirit is charity, 
joy, peace. '^^ These are the fruit of the Sacred Heart. 

i- Gal. V. 22. 



IGO THE LAST WILL OF THE SACKED HEART. 

The heart He bears to lis we must bear to our 
neighbour. Our whole mind must be to our neigh- 
bour what His mind is to us. And to tliis we must 
add a love of the Cross ; for that was the crowning 
perfection of the Sacred Heart. It is not easy 
to love contradictions, slights, sorrows, anxieties, 
failures, vexations. We who murmur and repine 
and chafe and fret all the day long if anything goes 
against us call ourselves disciples of the Sacred Heartl- 
and yet we have not so much as the will to bear the 
Cross, much less to love it. We must learn to be 
forgiving, to be patient, to be severe against the 
least sin, not in others — we must bear with them 
in charity, hoping for their salvation — but in our- 
selves. Be as sharp as you will with yourselves, do 
not bear with the least sin in your own temper, 
give no impunity to yourselves or to your own faults. 
These are the tokens of the true disciples of the 
Sacred Heart. 

I have endeavoured to put before you the dogma 
of the Sacred Heart in the Sacrament of the Altar ; 
for dogma, as we have seen, generates devotion. 
One reason why devotion among us is often so low 
and feeble is because the light of dogma sometimes is 
not held up in all its peremptory and divine splen- 
dour. Truth has a sacramental power of its own. 



THE LAST WILL OF THE SACRED HEART. IGl 

Wherever truth is lifted up it is the light of a beacon 
set on high, and the radiance of that light penetrates 
into the intellect, and through the intellect into the 
will, and pervades the heart. You that are not mem- 
bers of the Confraternity of the Sacred Heart, lose 
no time to enrol yourselves. Go to your pastors, and 
give your names to be entered on the rolls of the 
confraternity. The obligations are very slight, the 
benedictions are very great. The obligations are 
only to say every day one ' Our Father' and one 
'Hail, Mary,' and once the baptismal Creed, with 
this one aspiration, ' Most Sweet Heart of Jesus, 
make me to love Thee more and more.' This is the 
whole obligation. But it puts you into a special 
and continuous personal relation to the Sacred 
Heart and to the Divine Person of Jesus ; and being 
a personal disciple, and in direct personal relation 
to Him, your whole life will be drawn to His pre- 
sence". After having enrolled yourselves, I counsel 
you to consecrate yourselves; that is, to resolve that 
you will take His Sacred Heart as your model; that 
you will live according to it ; that you will examine 
your own heart by it ; that you will make it, day by day, 
the rule of your actions ; that you will come to it as 
to a fountain. As a thirsty man comes to a fountain 
of water, so come, day by day, to the Sacred Heart it- 



162 THE LAST WILL OF THE SACHED HEART. 

self, to obtain the grace to be like it : and lastly, 
make a constant reparation to it for the manifold sins 
and wrongs and slights that you have committed 
against it ; and not for your own sins only, but for 
the sins of all other men. Live henceforth a life of 
reparation, endeavouring by your love and by your 
fidelity to offer, instead of the vinegar and the gall 
lifted to His lips on Calvary, the consolation and the 
joy of your generous and grateful service. 

Into what sweetness, into what gladness will you 
enter if j^ou are disciples of the Sacred Heart. You 
will understand by experience the words, ' How great 
is the multitude of Thy sweetness which Thou hast 
hid for them that fear Thee.'^^ Throughout the whole 
world, from sunrise to sunset — for in the Kingdom 
of Jesus the sun never goes down — the Sacred Heart 
is worshipped day by day. When the tapers on the 
altar are lighted for the Holy Mass in our morn- 
ing, in other regions of the world they are being 
kindled on the altar for the evening Benediction. 
And as the sun goes round the world, in the language 
of men, opening the day, the Holy Mass follows it, and 
Benediction comes after in its train. Everywhere 
Jesus is upon the altar, in the tabernacle, under the 
canopy of the world -vride Church; and there are 

18 Ps. XXX. 20. 



THE LAST WILL OF THE SACRED UEAPcT. 1 G3 

millions upon millions, and myriads of millions, ador- 
ing Him in perpetual worship, and saying, * Sanctus, 
Sanctus, Sanctus ; Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of 
Sabaotli ; heaven and earth are full of Thy giorj^ 
Hosanna in the highest.' 

And that worship upon earth mingles with the 
worship of heaven. For before the throne there 
are Saints and Martyrs, and Angels and Archangels, 
and dominions and principalities and powers, and 
virtues and thrones, and Cherubim and Seraphim ; 
and in the splendour of eternal glory all created 
things are casting their crowns of gold before the 
Sacred Heart of Jesus, saying, ^ Worship and glory 
and thanksgiving and wisdom and praise be unto 
Him that sitteth upon the throne.' The Sacred 
Heart of Jesus to all eternity '\rill be adored, in the 
glory of God the Father 



VI. 

THE TEMPORAL GLORY OF THE SACRED 

HEART. 



I 



» 



THE TEMPOKAL GLORY OF THE SACRED 

HEART. 



His eyes shall see the King in His beauty. Isaias xxxiii. 17. 

When the prophet spoke these words, Jerusalem was 
in fear and desolation. The hosts of Ass^^ria were 
coming up round about its walls, and the enemy was 
mighty and confident in his strength. The people 
of Jerusalem were terror-stricken and conscious of 
their own weakness. And in that time of anxiety 
and fear the prophet lifted up his voice, and promised 
to the inhabitants of Jerusalem that they should yet 
^ see the King in His beauty ;' that is, the glory of the 
Son of David, the peace and victory of His Kingdom 
over all its enemies. But the prophet was gazing on 
no earthly king when he spoke these words. He was 
looking upon no created beauty ; the throne of David 
disappeared in the glory that arose before him; the 
walls of Jerusalem passed out of his sight ; it was 
not Ezechias, it was the Word Incarnate reigning 
upon His throne, of whose beauty the prophet spoke. 



168 TEMPOKAL GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 

It was the SaYiour of Israel, because it was the God 
of Israel ; it was the King of Israel, because it was 
the Incarnate Son of God. This promise was indeed 
made to the Jews : but the prophet also says, * He that 
walketh in justice . . . and shaketh his hand from 
bribes, and stoppeth his cars lest they hear blood, and 
shutteth his eyes that they look not upon eYil,'^ he 
shall see the King in His beauty. That is to say, no 
unjust man, no man that worketh iniquity, no man 
that speaketh falsely, no man that barters truth and 
justice for bribes, no man that listens to evil, or that 
looks upon wickedness, shall 'see the King in His 
beauty.' These words are therefore spoken to every 
one of us; and the promise and the prophecy shall 
be fulfilled in us if in the sight of God we be just. 

But when and how shall we ' see the King in His 
beauty' ? They saw ' the King in His beauty,' in 
that midnight when His Blessed and Immaculate 
Mother laid Him as an infant in the manger at Beth- 
lehem ; the shepherds saw Him, and the angels of 
God worshipped Him. They saw ' the King in His 
beauty' when the kings from the East came up, bear- 
ing their gifts, to lay at the feet of a King greater than 
themselves. They also saw Hhe King in His beauty' 
who, during the three-and-thirty years of His life 

1 Isaias xxxiii. 15, 



TEMPORAL GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 169 

while He was visible among men, saw the Son of God 
Incarnate, of whom the Evangelist writes when he 
says, ^ The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us ; 
and we beheld His glory, the glory as it were of the 
Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.' 
And we too shall see ^ the King in His beauty' if we 
be pure and just of heart ; if we keep a custody over 
our senses, and guard our soul free from sin, the pro- 
mise shall hereafter be fulfilled to us, ^ The clean in 
heart shall see God ;' we shall see our Lord Jesus 
Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, sitting 
upon the great white throne, the splendour of which 
surpasses the noonday sun, in the glory of His Eternal 
Father. But was this prophecy and this promise only 
to be fulfilled in the past, or only to be fulfilled in the 
future ? Has it no fulfilment now ? Is not this beauty 
of the King now visible to our eyes ? Has it no 
manifestation except by the light of natural sense as 
it was in the beginning, or by the light of glory as 
it shall be hereafter ? The beauty of the King is 
visible now, manifest at this time. There is a per- 
petual manifestation of the beauty of the Word In- 
carnate ; from that hour to this it has never ceased 
upon earth. There is a vision of faith which is the 
prelude of the vision of glory. The vision of faith is 
the vision of the eye and of natural sight taken up into 



170 TEMPORAL GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 

a higher region, according to the words of Jesus 
Himself when He said, ^ Because thou hast seen Me 
thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not 
seen and yet have believed/'^ And therefore now, at 
this time, to you and to me^ this vision of beauty is 
granted, if we have the light of faith and the eyes of 
faith to see it. 

Let us go on, then, and draw out brielBy how this 
vision of beauty is manifested to us now. 

1 . First of all, the glory of the Incarnate Word from 
that hour to this has shone upon the earth, and in 
that light the beauty of the Eternal Son of God made 
Man for us is visible to those who believe. The 
world was dark, because it had lost the light of 
the knowledge of God ; the world was dark in its 
intellect, because it had lost the illumination of the 
knowledge of the true God ; and the w^orld was dark 
in its heart, because it was dark in its intellect. There- 
fore, having lost the knowledge of the true God, it 
formed to itself hideous and perverted conceptions of 
many gods, the incorporation of the passions of 
man; and because its conception of God was per- 
verted and hideous its heart was base, sensual, and 
depraved. Such was the state of the old world ; and 
the prophet describes it when he says, ' Darkness 

2 s. John XX. 29, 



TEMPORAL GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART., 171 

shall cover the earth, and a mist the people | but the 
Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be 
seen upon thee ; and the Gentiles shall walk in thy 
light, and kings in the brightness of thy rising.'^ 
This was the first manifestation of the glory of the 
Sacred Heart, and its light rose upon the earth in 
the star which led the kings from the East, a single 
ray of light from heaven in the midnight of the world. 
* The Bright and Morning Star''^ shone in Bethlehem, 
and from the lowly roof of the stable it spread its 
rays little by little. In His childhood, in His boy- 
hood, in His youth, in His manhood, in the humble 
life w^hich He lived at Nazareth, and in the public 
life which He lived in Jerusalem the glory and the 
beauty were w^axing always brighter. Then He mani- 
fested Himself to His disciples ; and He w'as mani- 
fested as the Son of God in His baptism, when the 
Holy Ghost came down, and the voice of the Father 
declared Him to be the Son of His good will. Then 
He manifested His glory w^hen He came to dwell in 
Galilee, where He wrought His first miracle; He 
was manifested in the Transfiguration, where His 
countenance ^ shone as the sun, and His raiment 
became white as snow.' But these v/ere only the 
outward symbols, the visible tokens of a vision of 

^ Isaias Lx. 2, 3 * Apoc. xxii. 16, 



172 TEMPORAL GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 

His beauty and His glory, which was for ever grow- 
ing broader and more luminous in the hearts of 
His disciples as the light of faith came down upon 
them. Finally, when He rose from the dead, and 
in the forty days when He came back to them, 
He was manifest in His Godhead and His power, 
and the beauty and the glory of the Incarnate 
Word were fully revealed. Lastly, the 'Light of 
the world' which, as the prophet foretold, arose 
as the * Star out of Jacob,'^ became as the noonday 
sun in its strength, when, on the Day of Pente- 
cost, the illumination of the Holy Ghost was shed 
forth as a flood, first upon the Apostles, and then 
through them upon the nations of the world. In that 
great depth of light the words of the prophet were 
fulfilled, that * the earth is filled with the knowledge 
of the Lord, as the covering waters the sea.'^ The 
glory of the Incarnation, shining out from Jerusalem, 
has filled the whole world. The Christian world has 
light in its dwellings ; beyond it the nations lie in 
darkness. Wheresoever the Sacred Heart of Jesus 
Christ is known, there hangs before the intellect and 
the heart of men a vision of beauty ; and that vision 
of beauty is the vision of God Eimself Incarnate, 
verifying the words of the Apostle, ' God, who com- 

* Numbers xxiv. 17. * Isaias xi. 10. 



TEMPORAL GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 173 

manded the light to shine out of darkness, hath 
shined in our hearts, to give the light of the know- 
ledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.'^ 
The human countenance of Jesus, radiant with the 
perfections of the Sacred Heart, is the vision of beauty 
which has hung for these eighteen hundred years 
before the intellect and the heart of the Christian 
world. No vision of beauty ever surpassed this ; 
none but this has ever manifested the glories of God 
and the perfections of manhood in one Person. We 
see there the beauty of the Divine Person of Jesus 
Christ, the beauty of His sacred countenance, the 
beauty of His divine character, and the beauty of 
His deified human Heart. It is the beauty of the 
Incarnate Word, clothed in all the tenderness of our 
manhood, elevated and glorified in the Person of the 
Eternal Son. Here, then, is the first fulfilment ; and 
you, if you be among the just, if you keep custody 
over your senses, if your heart be clean, have the light 
of this beauty shining upon you. If you live lives of 
prayer and piety and faith, it is as visible before you 
as the beauty of the world which we see with our eyes 
of sense. 

2. Once more. This beauty of the heart of Jesus 
was impressed upon the world. For it was not only 

• 2 Cor. iv. G. 



174 TEMPORAL GLOHY QF THE SACRED HEART. 

a vision ; it was a power. It not only hangs before 
us as an object of contemplation, but it has a power 
of transforming all things into its own likeness. 
The Apostle says, ' We, with open face beholding as 
in a glass the glory of the Lord, are transformed into 
the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit 
of the Lord ;' that is to say, God has manifested His 
beauty to the world that He may change the world into 
its likeness. The first creation which fell from Him by 
sin fell likewise under the sentence of death ; and be- 
cause it was darkened and defiled, it needed to be re- 
generated and renewed and created again. The second 
creation of God is not only perfect, as in the begin- 
ning, but is raised to a perfection above its former 
state. The transfiguration of the world is accom- 
plished by the beauty of the Incarnate Word, that is, 
by the beauty of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Where- 
soever the light of His knowledge has spread. He has 
changed the face of the world. He has fulfilled the 
words of the prophet : ' The land that was desolate 
and impassable shall be glad ; and the Vvilderness 
shall rejoice, and flourish as a lily; it shall bud forth 
and blossom. The glory of Libanus is given to it ; 
the beauty of Carmel and Saron. They shall see the 
glory of the Lord and the beauty of our God.'^ That 

8 Isiiias XXXV. 1, 2. 



TEMPORAL GLOnY OF THE SACRED HEART. 175 

is to say, * the nations that sat in darkness and in the 
shadow of death' shall first be illuminated ; ' they shall 
see the glory of the Lord and the beauty of our God :' 
even the very soil under their feet shall bud forth 
in goodness, and blossom in purity as the lily ; the 
impassable way shall become plain, the path of justice 
shall be clear as light, men shall walk where before the 
wilderness w^as never trodden by foot. The nations of 
the world, which were as a desert, shall become a gar- 
den ; from a wilderness they shall be made the para- 
dise of God ; that is to say, out of the heathen w^orld 
shall arise the Christian world ; out of the world that 
was dead in sin shall arise a world of sanctity and life. 
Such is the one Holy Catholic Church, the mirror of 
the beauty of the Incarnate Word ; holy, because He 
is holy and the Giver of all holiness ; one, because He 
is the Only-begotten of the Father ; universal, because 
He has shed abroad His light in all the w^orld ; im- 
perishable, because He is eternal life. The Kingdom 
of Jesus Christ has changed the face of the world ; 
wheresoever it has spread it has reclaimed the waste 
places of the earth, it has subdued them by culture, 
and has made them to be a field white for the har- 
vest. Such has been the work of the Incarnation. 
The Sacred Heart of Jesus, which is the love of God 
clothed in the sympathies of our humanity, has been 



176 TEMPORAL GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 

not only glory and beauty, but an assimilating povv* er, 
the principle of a new life, changing the inward 
hearts of men and of nations into the likeness of 
itself. Every soul born again of the Holy Ghost 
receives this seed of God. And S. John writes, 
' Whosoever is born of God committeth not sin ; for 
His seed abideth in him, and he cannot sin because 
he is born of God.' If any man be in Christ Jesus 
— and all who are baptised and are born again are in 
Christ Jesus — ' old things are passed away ; and all 
things are become new.'^ Wherever the hearts of men 
have been thus changed, first one by one, then by 
households, then by villages and towns and cities and 
peoples and nations, the world has changed its face. 
It has put off its own likeness, and has put on the im- 
age of Jesus Christ. The outward life and the inward 
Heart of our Divine Eedeemer have become the pattern 
and law to men. And as the world was changed in 
individuals, households, and kingdoms, the Church of 
God became the mother and the queen of the nations. 
They were thereby redeemed from the bondage and 
corruption of sin into the glorious liberty of the sons 
of God. In them have been verified the words of 
Jesus Christ, ^ If the Son shall make you free, you 
shall be free indeed. '^^ * You shall know the truth, 
» S. John iii. 9. ^^ Ibid. viii. 36. 



TEMPORAL GLOPvY OF THE SACRED HEART. 177 

and the truth shall make you free.'^^ As in the 
beginning the serpent tempted man with a false 
knowledge to rob him of the truth, so Satan now 
tempts men with a false liberty to rob them of the 
freedom of the sons of God. Liberty is not license ; 
liberty is not the freedom of madmen ; liberty is not 
the power to do wrong, nor to believe falsehood, nor 
to err out of the way of justice. Liberty means 
redemption from sin, from falsehood, from human 
teachers w^ho mav err and therefore can mislead. It is 
redemption from all spiritual tyranny of man over 
man, and the liberation of the whole man, with all 
his faculties, his intellect, his heart, his will, his affec- 
tions ; it is a redemption of the soul in all its actions 
towards God, in its obedience, in its faith, in its 
adoration, by the divine authority of Jesus Christ, 
who has purchased us with His Precious Blood, 
and has folded us within a unity where falsehood 
cannot enter, and under the divine guidance of a 
Teacher wdio can never err. Such is true liberty, 
and there is no other. The Church of God, then, is 
the mother of all true spiritual and religious freedom, 
for she it w^as who taught the nations of the earth 
the true domestic, public, civil, and political liberties 
of mankind. There w^as never liberty before Chris- 

11 S. John yiii. 32. 
N 



178 TEMPORAL GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 

tianity ; liberty there will never be when Christianity 
shall cease to guide the government of men. All 
true liberty came into the w^orld with Jesus Christ ; 
all true liberty spread from Him among the nations 
of the world, and with Him true liberty will depart. 
If men reject the beauty of that King reigning on 
the throne of truth they will fall under the dominion 
of falsehood and of force, which will put a yoke of iron 
on their necks. The Word Incarnate, who is the 
second Adam, came and impressed upon the whole 
race of mankind, so far as they are His disciples, the 
likeness of Himself. He has made His own Most 
Sacred Heart the model and the pattern and the 
principle by which men may both form their lives and 
govern the world. He has stamped a new likeness 
upon the race of mankind, and that new image is His 
own, more perfect than the likeness of the first Adam 
in which we are born, for he was only man ; but the 
second Adam, of whom we are born again, is the 
Incarnate God. We are thereby made ' partakers of 
the Divine Nature,'^^ and are conformed to the divine 
perfections. This also is the vision of ' the King in 
His beauty' by the light of the Sacred Heart. 

3. Thirdly and lastly, ' the King in His beauty' 
may be seen in the personal and temporal reign of 

1- 2 S. Peter i. 4. 



TEMPORAL GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 179 

Jesus Christ in heaven and on earth. How does He 
reign on earth temporally and personally ? He reigns 
by one whom He has appointed to reign in His stead, 
to speak in His name, and to exercise His supreme 
Jurisdiction. He has not left Himself without a 
Vicar. When He said, ^ Thou art Peter, and upon 
this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of 
hell shall not prevail against it ;' and when He added, 
* and to thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of 
heaven ; and w4iatsoever thou shalt bind on earth 
shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou 
shalt loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven,' 
He chose out and constituted one who should reign in 
His stead and fill His own place. He created also an 
office which should be perpetual on earth. He willed 
that there should for ever be one who should repre- 
sent Him, one who should feed His sheep, as the 
Chief Shepherd of the universal flock. Therefore he 
is called His Vicar, because he holds the keys and 
rules by the authority which belongs by right to 
Himself. And when He said, ^ Behold I am with you 
all days, even to the consummation of the world,' He 
promised that the office of His Vicar should never 
cease. The w^orld will not believe this. If men 
will not believe it, let them account for the fact that 
there is at this hour a succession of Pontiffs ruling 



180 TEMPORAL GLORY OF TH3 SACRED HEART. 

from the See of Peter. Its presence claims a lineal 
identity. It is here living and reigning ; and if the 
world will not believe it to be unbroken, if it will 
not believe it to be divine, let it account for its 
existence and for the obedience of men to its voice. 
Let the world tell us why the See of Peter has 
never been destroyed. The world has never ceased 
to strive against it, and if it had been in the power 
of man to destroy it, it would have been destroyed 
long ago. If the w^orld could have wrenched its 
links asunder they would have long ago been broken. 
But here it is at this hour. Pius IX. speaks in the 
name of all the Pontiffs that have ever gone before 
him — speaks as they ever spoke, full of the living 
consciousness of a divine commission, in the Name 
and with the authority of His Divine Master. Here 
then is ' the King in His beauty,' ' though his visage 
be inglorious among men, and his form among the 
sons of men ;'^^ ^despised and the most abject of 
men.'^^ Yet from him alone is derived the jurisdiction 
to speak to you the words that I am speaking now ; and 
from him alone is received the power to absolve ; and 
the authority to delegate the power of absolution to 
those who apply to you the pardon of the Most Preci- 
ous Blood. But I said men will not believe it, and 

13 Isaias lii. 14. ^^ Ibid. liii. 8. 



TEMPORAL GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 181 

they tell us, ' The whole world is rejecting this Vicar 
of Jesus Christ, as you call him.' I answer. They 
rejected his Master; and if they rejected the Master, 
is it any wonder that they reject His Yicar ? And 
did not the Master Himself foretell ? — ' The disciple 
is not above the Master, nor the servant above his 
Lord.' ^ If they have called the good man of the 
house Beelzebub, how much more them of his house- 
hold.'-^^ It is but a fulfilment of the prophecy, ' You 
shall be hated of all men for My name's sake.' If the 
world loved us, the prophecy would not be fulfilled, 
and our faith might be shaken ; but the prophecy is 
fulfilled in this, that the w^orld rejects now the "Vicar of 
Jesus Christ, as then it rejected Jesus Christ Himself. 
Ay, more than this : if there be any head upon earth, 
sacred and venerable, which is the mark of every 
stone that every evil or wanton hand can fling, which 
is pelted every day with all the storms of proud and 
rebellious tongues, it is the head of the Vicar of 
Jesus Christ. The world says to us, ' Look at your 
Vicar of Jesus Christ : the whole world has not only 
rejected him and his Temporal Power, but every day 
in all its tones is telling both him and you what 
w^e think of him.' Is it a wonder that the Vicar 
should not be above his Master? Did they not 

»5 S. Matt. X. 24, 25. 



182 TEMPOKAL GLOr.Y OF THE SACKED HEART. 

refuse to believe in Him ? Did they not revile Him ? 
Did they not mock Him ? Did they not blindfold 
Him ? Did they not say to Him, ' Prophesy who 
it is that smote thee' ? And if they are slighting 
and mocking His Vicar now it is more than the 
fulfilment of a prophecy ; it is a conformity be- 
tween the servant and the Master, it is therefore a 
luminous proof and confirmation of our faith. Once 
more the whole world is making war against him. 
'You tell us/ the world says every day, *that the 
nations of the world are Christian, that they are the 
offspring of the Church of God. Why, these nations 
have all rejected the Head of your Church ; they are 
making war against him, they are pulling him down 
on every side.' Why not ? They crucified his Master. 
Is there not here again another fulfilment ? Did they 
not, for three hundred years, crown almost every suc- 
cessive Pontiff with martyrdom ? Has not the world, 
for fifteen hundred years, by subtilty and by force en- 
deavoured to overthrow that sacred throne, and to rob 
it of the sovereignty which his Divine Master gave 
to Peter ? When the sheep that were appointed for 
slaughter in the beginning ascended the hill of the 
Capitol, they, all in one day, found the wolves lying 
dead upon it. The wolves were dead, and the sheep 
entered into possession of the inheritance which their 



TEMPORAL GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 183 

Lord had given them. Nevertheless from that hour 
to this they have always been the objects of the 
world's scorn and hatred. Five-and-forty times the 
Vicars of Jesus Christ have been driven out of Eome, 
or have never set their foot in it ; they have been, 
from the beginning, martyrs, exiles, fugitives, and pri- 
soners. It has been their common fare, it has been 
the lot and the inheritance of him who bears the 
office of the Vicar of the Son of God, who w^as the 
first to be mocked, bound, scourged, and crucified ; 
and in this there is revealed the ' beauty of the King,' 
the beauty of meekness, the beauty of faith, the 
beauty of inflexibility, the beauty of fearlessness, the 
beauty of fortitude, and the beauty of fidelity to God 
and to His truth even unto martyrdom. No man 
that has the light of faith in him, no man that has 
a Christian and a manly heart, can surely read the 
history of the Pontifi*s without seeing there a reflec- 
tion at least of their Divine Master's shame ; and this 
too is the glory of the Sacred Heart. 

But Jesus not only reigns personally among 
men, by an outward sovereignty; He reigns also 
by an inward sovereignty, by the inflexibility of 
justice over the will, and by the infallibility of truth 
over the intellect and the conscience of men — over 
those that believe, for their joy and their salvation ; 



184 TEMPOIUL GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 

over those that will not belieye, for their peril and 
for their sentence hereafter. Those who, in bad 
faith, lift up their heel against the authority of the 
Church of Jesus Christ are condemned of themselves. 
Jesus has said, *For judgment I am come into this 
world, that they that see not may see, and they that 
see may become blind.^^ If you were blind, you 
should not have sin; but now you say. We see. 
Your sin remaineth.'^'' 

The old world was so full of a belief in God that 
it fell into the worship of a multitude of gods. So far 
was atheism from the heart of men in the beginning, 
that they invested the visible objects of the world, 
even the w^orld itself, with divinity. 

The w^orld, which is falling away from the light 
of faith, apostatising from Jesus Christ and per- 
secuting His Church, is the Avorld without God, the 
atheistical w^orld ; and that atheistical world is the 
world that is blind and cannot see the beauty of the 
Son of God. It is sinking below the Pantheism of 
the pagan world. It does not believe in Jesus, 
therefore it cannot see the impress of God in the 
creation of the world. It does not believe in a 
Creator, therefore it cannot read His handwriting. 
It sees the sky over its head, and believes in no 
16 S. John ix. 39. ' i' Ibid. 41. 



TEMPORAL OLOllY OF THE SACPvED HEAnT. 185 

heaven beyond it. It sees the visible horizon, and 
believes in no mind that governs the universe. It 
believes in the earth under its feet, because ifc has 
had to bury its dead, and ifc will be buried in the 
same itself. The material world of this day is with- 
out God — is simply atheistic; men live as if they 
were matter, dust returning unto dust, without belief 
in the existence of their own souls, or of the im- 
mutable distinction of right and wrong, or of judg- 
ment to come, or of a state after death. They live 
without God : they die like the cattle that perish. 
And if they who die like the cattle live like men, it 
is a mystery I cannot unravel. The man that lives 
without belief in God, if he lives a life rational, 
intellectual, just, pure, and merciful, is a miracle 
indeed. AYhen faith in God disappears, the soul 
in man is degraded. In the midst of this world 
without God, which is enveloped and stilled in m^atter, 
the Church is conscious, with a vivid and living con- 
sciousness, of an unseen world with which it is vitally 
united. The Church visible on earth, militant and 
suffering here, lives by the same life as the Church 
suffering in Purgatory and triumphant in heaven. We, 
who believe in the- Communion of Saints, are as con- 
scious of that union as they who live in a household 
are conscious of the existence of all others that are 



186 TEMPOKAL GLOnY OF THE SACRED HEAKT. 

under the same roof. As the Apostle says, ^ You are 
come to Mount Sion, and to the city of the living God, 
the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the company of many 
thousands of angels, and to the Church of the first- 
born, who are written in the heavens, to the spirits 
of just men made perfect. '^^ There is a cloud of 
witnesses hanging over your heads, you are encom- 
passed by the world unseen; and in the midst of 
that unseen v/orld there is the heavenly court : there 
are the nine orders of angels, and the Patriarchs and 
the Prophets and the Apostles and Martyrs and the 
Saints and the Confessors surrounding ^ the King in 
His beauty;' and from that throne He reigns upon 
earth. He governs the world by Plis providence, 
and He disposes the hearts of men by His Spirit. 
It is His hand which bears the rod of iron to reign 
over the nations of the v/orld. He is bearing with 
them in patience until the time shall come when 
He shall bring forth justice unto judgment. 

Thus far I have traced out, very imperfectly, the 
beauty of the King, which is visible now to faith. 
Therefore to us also the promise is fulfilled. But 
though this is visible to faith, it is not visible to those 
who will not believe. It is not visible except to 
those who are clean of heart. The manifestation of 

18 Hob.xii. 22, 23. 



TE:\rPORAL GLOPvY OF THE SACRED HEART. 187 

God has never failed, but the eyes of the world have 
grown dim. ^ The light shineth in the darkness, and 
the darkness did not comprehend it.'^^ He is hid to 
those ' in whom the god of this world hath blinded 
the minds of them that believe not, that the light of 
the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image 
of God, should shine unto them.'^'^ 

The Incarnate Word dethroned the world. Its 
atheism, its idolatries, its corruptions, its cruelties, 
its immoralities, its philosophies, its superstitions, 
were all swept away in the light of the Incarnation; 
but ever since its downfall the world has been striv- 
ing to dethrone the Incarnate Word. The conflict 
is going on at this hour ; it is now closing in, round 
about the Church and the Head of the Church, with 
its last array of power. But it shall not prevail. 
At this moment, when the world seems to be in its 
greatest strength, and the Church in its greatest 
weakness, there never was a time from the beginning 
when the Church of God was so widespread among 
the nations of the world — so nearly reaching to its 
universality ; nor was it ever more profoundly united 
in intellect and heart and will within, nor ever more 
solid and indissoluble in its unity without. It never 
manifested at any time to the world the notes of its 
'» S. Joiiii i. 5. ■'^' 2 Cor. iv. 4. 



188 TEMPORAL GLOr.Y OF THE SACRED IIEAET. 

divine origin and of its divine authority with a 
broader light, or vdth a more self-evident witness, 
than at this da3\ 

Therefore in this time of desolation fear nothing; 
have confidence in the Sacred Heart, which day by 
day, in all the Catholic Unity, is known and loved 
more and more. If the hour of deliverance tarries, 
it is only because the time is not ripe. Trust in 
the words of prophecy and of promise: ' His eyes shall 
see the King in His beauty.' That manifestation 
wdll come wdien the time is come ; meanwhile rejoice 
and be glad. Know^ that your inheritance is sure, 
and that you shall enter into its fulness vvhen His will 
has been accomplished and the number of His elect 
is gathered in. These dark days are not for ever. 
The time is at hand wdien it shall be said to us : 
* Thy sun shall go down no more, and thy moon shall 
not decrease; for the Lord shall be unto thee for an 
everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall 
be ended. '^^ 

"^ Isaias Ix. 20. 



VII. 

THE TEANSFORMING POWER OF THE 
SACRED HEART. 



THE TEANSFORMING POAVER OF THE 
SACRED HEART. 



For we all beholding, as with open face, the glory of the Lord, are 
transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the 
Spirit of the Lord. 2 Coe. iii. 18. 

I HAVE already explained the language of the Church, 
by which we are taught that the Sacred Humanity 
assumed by the Son of God is deified. It became the 
Manhood of God, and, as the Fathers say, it was 
also deified by the sanctity of God, which pervaded 
it, as fire pervades the iron in the furnace. In 
this latter sense the deification of the Sacred Hu- 
manity signifies its sanctification. 

Now in this latter sense Dionysius (or whoso- 
ever be the author of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy) y S. 
Athanasius, S. Cyril, S. John Damascene, and others 
apply the word to all Vviio are sanctified by union and 
conformity to Jesus Christ. Dionysius says, ^ Deifi- 
cation is an assimilation and union, so far as it can 
be, with God.'^ Again, ' The nature of God is the 

1 De Eccl. Hier. cap. i. s. 3. 



192 THE TEANSFORMIXG POWER OF 

principle of deification, by wliicli all who shall be 
deified are deified.'" S. Athanasins says, ' He (the 
Son of God) assumed our human nature that He 
might deify us.'^ And again, ^ He was made m.an 
that He might deify us.'^ 

S. John Damascene says that God created man 
to be deified by approaching to Himself; and he 
explains the manner of it, — ^ deified by participation 
of divine illumination, not changed into the divine 
essence.''' In this way the Fathers explain the words 
of the Psalmist quoted by our Lord : ' Ye are gods, 
ye are all the children of the Most High;'^ and again 
those of S. Peter, ' being made partakers of the 
divine nature.'^ S. Athanasius writes thus against 
the Arians : ' It is not granted to Him as a reward 
that He should be called the Son of God ; but it 
is He that has made us to be sons of i\\Q Father, 
and He has deified men, being made man Himself.'^ 
Now the meaning of all this is, not that we are made 
partakers of the divine essence, which is both intrin- 
sically impossible and madness to think, but by adop- 

- Cap. i. s. 4. 

^ Orat. de Incarn. YerLi, torn iv. p. 1C3. 

4 Ad Adelpliium, torn. i.p. 158. 

5 De Fid. Orth. lib. ii. c. xii. 

6 Ps. Ixxxi. 6. 7 2 Pet. i. 4. 
* Orat. ii. Contr. Ariaii. torn. i. p. 345. 



THE SACRED HEART. 193 

tion,by the sanctification of the Holy Ghost, by par- 
ticipation in goodness and illumination, by assimi- 
lation, and by conformity. 

Therefore conformity to the Sacred Heart of Jesus 
is our perfection. First, let us see in what that 
conformity consists ; next, the means by which it is 
wroup^ht in us ; and lastly, the signs of it. 

What, then, is conformity to the Sacred Heart of 
Jesus? S. Paul says that 'we all, with open face 
beholding the glory of the Lord, are transformed into 
the same image.' And when he says ^tce^^ he 
means all Christians, as distinguished from the 
people of God of old ; for he is drawing a contrast 
between the manifestation of the glory of the Lord 
in the face of Moses, who, after he had seen God, 
while his face was shining with the reflection of the 
divine presence, had need to cover it with a veil, 
because the people could not endure the splendour of 
His glory. The Apostle contrasts this with the face 
of Jesus Christ, which is not only the reflection of 
God, but the face of God Himself, and this glory 
we behold without a veil. In the glory of that 
countenance we see the glory of God with open 
face. It is manifested and revealed to us ; and, so 
far from needing a veil to intercept that glory, 
it is by the steadfast contemplation of this glory 

o 



194 THE TRANSFORMING POWER OF 

that the power of transformation works in us. 
It changes those who gaze upon it ' from glory to 
glory into the same image.' In another place S. 
Paul says, ' God, who commanded the light to shine 
out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give 
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the 
face of Jesus Christ.' Here we have again exactly 
the same truth, that the face, that is, the human 
countenance, of Jesus Christ is the manifestation of 
the glory of God ; and that by gazing on it our 
hearts are assimilated, and changed by its trans- 
forming power into the same likeness. For as the 
Apostle says in another place, ' Let that mind be 
in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being 
in the form of God, counted it not robbery to be equal 
with God: but, being God Himself, He emptied Him- 
self (that is, He laid aside His glory), ^and was made 
in the likeness of man. ''-^ 'He took upon Him the 
form of a servant ;' that is to say, Jesus Christ was 
in the form of God, because He is God; and He took 
upon Himself the form of man, being made man — 
true man, as He is also true God; and that true form 
of God and true form of man united in one Divine 
Person constitute the Sacred Heart of Jesus. There 
is the eternal charity of God clothed in the sym- 

» Philip, ii. 6, 7. 



THE SACRED HEART. 195 

pathies and the affections of man, and in that we 
see the twofold perfections of the divine and human 
natures of Jesus Christ. Such, then, is the plain 
meaning of the text. The face of Jesus Christ 
signifies the whole Person, in all the perfections, 
divine and human ; and the manifestation of that 
perfection is by the Sacred Heart, w^hich is not only 
a symbol but an organ of the divine and human 
love of our Eedeemer. 

And to this pattern all who are saved must be con- 
formed. Salvation is this deification or conformity to 
the Sacred Heart. No soul which is deformed, that 
is, which is unlike to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, shall 
enter the Kingdom of God. No soul can live eter- 
nally which is not in union with God. And no soul 
which is not conformed to the Sacred Heart can 
be united wdth God. Therefore conformity to the 
Sacred Heart is the vital condition of our salva- 
tion. 

Spiritual writers sometimes put this subject 
in the following way, in four words — Deformata 
reformare, reformata trcmsformare, trcmsformata 
conformare ; that is, that which is deformed in us 
must be reformed, that which is reformed must be 
transformed, and that which is transformed must be 
conformed to the perfect image of Jesus Christ, who 



196 THE TRANSFORMING POWER OF 

is the form of all perfection, divine and human, be- 
ing both God and man. 

Now there are three kinds of this conformity. 
There is the transformation of the innocent, and 
there is the reformation of the penitent, and there 
is the conformation of the Saints. And all these 
three, the innocent, the penitent, and the Saints, find 
the type and the term of their perfection in Jesus 
Christ. 

1. We will begin first Vvith the innocent. And 
who are they ? The innocent are those that are born 
again and abide in their baptismal grace ; the little 
ones of the Kingdom of God, who never fall from the 
innocence of their baptism ; and those childlike souls 
who grow up in humility and purity, and to the end 
of life are childlike as they were in the beginning. 
Our Lord describes them when He says, ^ Unless 
you be converted and become like little children, 
you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of 
heaven. '^^ Now the most perfect example of this 
innocence is in the Person of our Lord Himself, 
in His own childhood, boyhood, youth, and man- 
hood. No shadow could ever fall upon the perfection 
of divine innocence. Being God, it was impos- 
sible in Him. The innocent are those who, being 
!<> S. Matt, xviii. 3. 



THE SACUED HEART. 197 

born again by water and the Holy Gliost, are made 
sons of God, brethren of Jesus Christ ; in them the 
light of faith, if sustained by mental prayer and the 
contemplation of the Person and the example of our 
Lord, is always growing ; then hope grows into con- 
fidence and reliance upon the love and the perpetual 
care of our Divine Master ; and then charity is ever 
kindling more and more towards God and man, 
expanding in their hearts, pervading their whole life. 
In this way they grow up into the likeness of our 
Lord. They become more and more averted from 
creatures ; and the world, which is the bondage of 
the soul, has less and less hold over them. They 
are more and more converted to God by a steady, 
equable, gradual, uninterrupted, and lifelong change 
or transformation of their v/hole mind and heart and 
will and spirit into the likeness of their Kedeemer. 
They are averted from creatures, because the very 
essence of sin is this, that the heart of man, which 
God made for Himself, to be in union vvith Himself, 
is turned away or averted from Him and is converted 
or turned to creatures ; so that by all its passions 
and affections it lays hold of creatures, and loves 
and serves, that is, worships, them more than God 
the Creator. But where faith, hope, and charity, 
and the Spirit of God dwell in the heart and per- 



198 THE TRANSFOEMING POWER OF 

petually grow and transform the whole inward life 
into the likeness of Jesus Christ, the soul loses hold 
of the creatures one by one ; it becomes detached 
from them, independent of them, and has its happi- 
ness in things that are higher than all creation. It is 
always turning to God : as the moon, which receives 
continually an increase of the light of the sun, until 
it is full, so the soul, turning continually towards 
God, loves God, rests in God, and finds all its good 
and all its fulness in God. 

Now the most perfect example of a heart turned 
in all its expanse to God was in the Sacred Heart. 
We are told that Jesus ' advanced in wisdom and 
age and grace with God and man.'^^ We are not 
to understand that our Divine Lord grew in grace. 
His deified soul v/as fall of grace from the first 
moment of the Incarnation. In Him there was no 
accession nor augmentation, for it was already full ; 
but there were fuller manifestations, a gradual 
unfolding in the eyes of men of that which was in 
Him from the beginning, according to the mea- 
sures and laws of the humanity which He had as- 
sumed. But in S.John, the * beloved disciple,' who, by 
a special privilege, was preserved from sin, there was 
this increase of grace, this continual augmentation 

i» S. Lnkeii. 52. 



THE SACRED HEAI^T. 199 

and accession; not only an outward manifestation, 
but an inward increase of the light and <;'race of 
sanctification. In his innocence he grew up : as 
the morning light from the day-spring continually 
grows to the noontide, or as the ripening of the 
harvests and of the fruits of the earth, which, with 
a silent onward progress, continually advance to 
their full maturity, so it was, without interruption 
and without break, in the life of the disciple whom 
Jesus loved. 

You w^ill say, perhaps, that there is no such 
innocence as this now. Yes ; your little children 
are such : they are still in a state of innocence. 
Watch over and guard them v/ell. If you do this, 
they may not, indeed, be like the beloved disciple, 
because they have no such special privilege of grace 
as he had, but still they may abide in their in- 
nocence without mortal sin to their lives' end. God, 
on His part, will give them all graces necessary 
for holy perseverance ; and they v;ill be perpetu- 
ally transforming and transformed into the im- 
age of Jesus Christ ; that is, the Holy Ghost, by 
whom they were born again, will perpetually ac- 
complish His own work in them. This, then, is 
the first example of conformity to the Sacred Heart 
of Jesus. 



200 THE TRANSFORMING POWER OF 

2. Now the second is, at first sight, more diffi- 
cult to understand. How, and in what manner, can 
it be said that the penitent is conformed to the 
Sacred Heart of our Lord? How can it be said 
that the sinful is conformed to the Sinless ? First 
of all, our Divine Saviour was made sin for us, 
though He knew no sin. He stood in the place of 
sinners ; His Heavenly Father dealt with Him as a 
sinner for the sake of sinners. He laid on Him the 
iniquity of us all, and ^ by His stripes we are all 
healed.' He suffered for sin all His life. From 
the first moment of the Incarnation began the ob- 
lation of Himself for sin ; He was the Man of 
Sorrows from the first instant that He took our 
manhood. From the first moment that the human 
soul was assumed and deified in the Person of the 
Son of God, He was conscious of the sins of the 
world and of the sorrow which is inseparable from 
that sin, because He made Himself the offering for 
sin. And for three-and-thirty years He was the 
Man of Sorrows ; He bore for us the mental sorrow 
we ought to bear for our sins. For three-and-thirty 
years He offered Himself by a willing and continuous 
expiation. His sinless humanity endured, I may say, 
the penance of our sins. He bore temptations and 
hunger, thirst and weariness, fasting and sleepless 



THE SACRED HEART. 201 

niglits, scourging and buffeting ; lie was crowned 
with thorns; He was nailed upon the Cross. No 
life of penance ever went beyond the sufferings of 
the innocent Son of God. He was tempted like to 
us in all things, sin only excepted ;^^ and yet He 
was made like to us in respect to sin in all its sor- 
rows, except only its guilt ; He had all the innocent 
infirmities of our nature, and all the penalties which 
follow upon our sin, except those which imply the 
guilt of the person : He suffered, He tasted them all ; 
and with a sensitive capacity of sorrow which none 
but the Sinless can know, and a Divine Sanctity alone 
can suffer. 

Therefore the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in its 
passion upon earth, its three-and-thirty years of 
perpetual sorrow of mind, its agony in the garden, 
its anguish upon Calvary, and in all its unknown 
sufferings, is the example of the penitent. What 
does it teach us? First of all, that they who are 
entangled in creatures and averse from God are 
thereby deformed, destroyed, and dead ; and that 
there is no way of return to God but by the mor- 
tification of the passions, affections, and senses 
whereby Ave lay hold of creatures, and creatures lay 
hold of us. Next, that there is no way of life for 

» • Heb. iv. 15. 



202 THE TRANSFORMING POYv'ER OP 

those that are sinful but union vvitli God, returning 
to God, conversion to God : that the very intellect 
becomes darkened, deformed, perverted ; the heart 
becomes corrupt, sensual, and selfish ; the will be- 
comes unstable and stubborn ; the whole inward 
nature of man is destroyed by conversion to crea- 
tures and aversion from God. We must come back 
again by conformity to that perfect image of inno- 
cence suffering for sin. We must put off not only 
the practice of sin, the wilful commission of sin, but 
also the love of sin, and the disorders, affections, and 
senses of sin. We must mortify them and die to 
them, and we must return to God and live in and 
for God above all. Hear the w^ords of the Apostle : 
*They that are Christ's have crucified their flesh 
with the vices and concupiscences.'^^ They must 
drive the nails through their evil passions. You 
know, each one, what yours are : every man has his 
own, every woman has her own. Learn what they 
are; know them for yourselves, and drive the iron 
through that affection or that passion which deforms 
your soul. When you are dead to it, so far you will 
be conformed to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Once 
more the Apostle says, ' With Christ I am nailed to 
the Cross. '-^'^ He says ' I ;' not one passion or one 
12 Gal. V. 21. 1' Ibia. ii. 10. 



THE SACKED HEART. 203 

affection only, but ^1/ that is, my whole soul is 
stretched out, as it were, nailed hands and feet, and 
my side is pierced upon the Cross with Christ — ^ I 
am nailed to the Cross, nevertheless I live, yet not I, 
but Christ liveth in me; and the life that I now live 
in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, w^ho 
loved me and delivered Himself for me;'^^ that is, 
gave Himself over to die for me. And then, once 
more, S. Paul says, ^ God forbid that I should glory 
save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom 
the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the 
world. '^^ If these w^ords were not the words of the 
Holy Ghost, written in Holy Scripture, I should not 
have dared to speak them. They are divine truth. 
Unless the sinner dies to sin, dies to the world, and 
dies to self, he will never enter into the Kingdom of 
God ; unless by mortification all that is deformed is 
crucified and dead, and by sanctification his whole 
soul in all its affections, powers, and faculties is con- 
formed to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, he can never 
be united to God in eternity. Let us take two 
examples. Take, first, the example of S. Mary 
Magdalen. Who departed further from the sanctity 
of the Sacred Heart than she ? And yet who ever 
stood nearer to the Cross ? and who ever, with a 
15 Gal. ii. 20. i«^ Ihld. vi. 1-1. 



204 THE TRANSFORMING POWER OP 

divine indignation, infused into her soul by the Holy 
Ghost, so chastised and expiated the sins that she 
had committed ? She was conformed to the Sacred 
Heart of her Master, by detestation of the sins which 
had stained her, and by love to the Eedeemer who 
had saved her from eternal death. Or, once more, 
take S. Paul, who was accomplice to the murder 
of S. Stephen, and whose whole life was spent in a 
burning zeal of penance, like the zeal for the house 
of God which consumed his Lord. Here we see, 
then, that the penitent must be conformed to the Sa- 
cred Heart of our Divine Eedeemer in these things : 
sorrow for sin, hatred of all evil, self-denial, self- 
sacrifice, and crucifixion of his own will. But penance 
is a hard word ; and be sure of what I say, any man 
who sets about this work, either trusting in his own 
strength or only by human rules, will never do it. 
But there is a way of accomplishing it which is both 
easy and sweet, and I will tell you what it is : it is to 
sit humbly at the feet of our Divine Lord in the Most 
Holy Sacrament, to look up into His face, on which 
there is no veil, into that face which reflects the love 
and the grace and the tenderness and the absolution 
and the pity of God Himself, and to gaze upon that 
countenance until the Spirit of the Lord has trans- 
formed you by inward submission into the purity 



THE S ACHED HEART. 205 

and the sorrow and self-chastisement of your Divine 
Redeemer. 

8. And then, thirdly, there is the conformation 
of the Saints. But of this I hardly know what to 
say. Neither you nor I are Saints, nor, in this w^orld 
perhaps, ever will be. And yet some of j-ou may be. 
There may be some poor humble soul who hears me 
who thinks that he is the worst of sinners ; there 
may be some poor woman who says that ^ no soul 
was ever farther from being a Saint than I am ;' and 
yet it may be that those two are nearer than we are 
in their conformity to the humility of Jesus, for 
' the last shall be first and the first last.' But of 
one thing I am sure — that if there be such they will 
be the least conscious of it; and if anybody here 
thinks well of himself, and that he is in the way to 
be a Saint, he is very far — perhaps the farthest — 
from it. Our Divine Lord is the King of Saints. He 
is the elder Brother of Saints, and His humility is 
the family likeness, the one type, which is common 
to all His brethren. It is universal in the whole 
Communion of Saints ; for as the light of heaven 
is one — and yet ' one is the glory of the sun, an- 
other the glory of the moon, and another the glory 
of the stars, for star differeth from star in glory ;'^^ 

1' 1 Cor. XT. 41. 



206 THE TRANSFORMING POWER OF 

and more than this, as each star has its own mag- 
nitude and its own colour — for there are coloured 
rays which diversify the light of every star — so it is 
with the Saints. All are like to their Divine Master 
in lowliness, and all are conformed to the Sacred 
Heart ; but no two are identical ; yet in this they all 
ao'ree — thev all have a due aversion from creatures, 
and they all are converted with their whole soul 
to God. I do not say in this world, but before 
the Throne to them God is all in all. And when 
I say they have an aversion from creatures, do 
not misunderstand me, as if the love of God extin- 
guishes the love of man. No; the love of our 
neighbour springs from the love of God ; the love of 
kindred, the love of friends, the love of all that are 
about us is a part of the love of God. As radiance 
is a part of light, so the love of mankind flows in a 
direct stream from the love of God. Therefore aver- 
sion from creatures means this, that there are no 
undue attachments, no dependencies, no bondage to 
creatures, even to the purest and the best. The soul 
is in perfect liberty because it is united with God ; it 
loves every one, each in his measure, and fulfils every 
duty of charity with a delicate tenderness greater 
by far than the love of those who love God less. In 
the measure in which vre love God, in that measure 



THE SACnED HEART. 207 

\vc shall have more heartfelt love to all that are about 
us. A father will he a better father, and a mother a 
better mother; son and daughter will be better chil- 
dren ; they will love each other more, and friends will 
love one another more in the measure in v/hich they 
love God more. Therefore aversion from creatures 
means a rational and measured love which sets us 
free from all undue attachments. Then, next. Saints 
have often said that they had two conversions ; their 
first conversion was from sin to penance, their second 
conversion was from penance to perfection ; that is 
to say, they began by putting off and mortifying 
everything they knew to be contrary to the will of 
God and to the example of the Sacred Heart of our 
Lord; and having done penance, and chastised them- 
selves for the past, then they w^ent beyond this. To 
keep the commandments of God is an absolute ne- 
cessity for salvation ; but after we have kept the 
letter of the commandments, there is the spirit of 
each commandment, and there are the counsels of 
liberty and generosity, which any one who desires 
to serve God with his whole heart will certainly 
fulfil. If a man gives an alms in some small, if it 
be not a niggard, measure, he is fulfilling a Christian's 
duty ; his conscience need not reproach him. But 
if a man were to say to himself, ' I will give a tithe 



203 TH3 TKANSFORMING POWEP. OF 

of all I possess/ or ' I will give a third of all tliat I 
gain/ or ' I will give a half of my inheritance/ he is 
plainly going beyond the measure of necessity : it is 
an act of generosity. Or, again, if any one w^ere to 
say, ' I know it is lawful for me to enjoy innocent 
pleasures; but the money that I might spend on 
innocent pleasures I will lay by and give to the poor' 
■ — there is no strict necessity for doing this ; but in 
doing it we are moved by a greater generosity. And 
this is the meaning of S. James when he says, * So 
speak ye and so do as being to be judged by the 
law of liberty/'^ that is, 'You w^ere free to do it, 
and you were free not to do it, but you did it for 
My sake. I knew^ every act of self-denial ; I knew 
everything that you laid aside ; I knew everything in 
w4iich you denied yourself; I knew every motive of 
every act : you did it for the love of Me.' This is 
the spirit of counsel, wiiich guides us and lifts us to 
higher and more perfect actions. 

Now I will try to give you a rule by which you 
may conform yourselves to the Sacred Heart of our 
Divine Lord. Eeligicus orders, as you know, have 
a rule and constitutions. I will give you a rule and 
constitutions for those who live in the world; and if 
you will make them your meditation, you will grow 

^* S. James ii, 12. 



THE SACRED HEART. 209 

in couformibV and be transfonnecl into the image of 
tlie Lawgiver from whom alone they come. Now the 
rule I wdll give you is this : ' Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with thy whole heart, w^ith thy whole 
soul, with thy whole mind, and wdth thy whole 
strength ; and thy neighbour as thyself.' I did not 
make that rule : you know who made it. He gave 
it to all men, and, alas, few men keep it. Now make 
a resolution with yourselves, in honour of the Sacred 
Heart, that you wall endeavour to keep this rule of 
perfection. Take that rule as your rule of life. 

Next, you wdll need constitutions, that is to say, 
explanations, or amplifications of the rule reduced 
to detail. I will give you two chapters. The first 
chapter is the Twelve Fruits of the Holy Ghost. 
Meditate upon them one by one, and try to transcribe 
them into your own lives. And the other chapter is 
the Eight Beatitudes. Endeavour to attain them : 
* Blessed are the poor in spirit ; blessed are the 
meek ; blessed are they that mourn ; blessed are they 
that hunger and thirst after justice ; blessed are the 
merciful ; blessed are the clean in heart ; blessed are 
the peacemakers ; blessed are ye w^hen men shall 
persecute you for justice' sake.' There you wdll find 
the surest rale of conformity to the Sacred Heart of 
our Lord ; and to those w4ao keep it there will be 

p 



210 THE TRANSFORIJIXG P0V7En OF 

three chief results. The first is, you Vvill be hurmble ; 
the second is, you will be charitable ; and the third 
is, you will love the Cross. In all that crucifies your 
will and crosses your heart's desire ; in all that 
against which other men chafe and fret, and over 
which they lose their self-control, you, when it befalls 
3^ou, will say to yourselves, ' This is the disci- 
pline of perfection ; this is the sign that the Spirit 
of the Lord is transforming me into the image into 
which I desire to be changed. I will gladly live 
and die under this cross, if only I can be made like 
to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.' 

Now I have touched on these three kinds of con- 
version most imperfectly, as I am well aware ; but 
you will see that in all these three — the innocent, 
the penitent, and the Saints — the Sacred Heart is 
the pattern, that the process of transformation is 
continuous, and that the power whereby that trans- 
formation is effected is our co-operation with the 
Holy Ghost working in us. 

As I said before, we are not Saints. No ; but we 
are, I hope, in the way to the kingdom of Saints, 
and to the throne of the great King of Saints ; and 
as the first rays of the daybreak are the same in kind 
as the splendour of the noonday sun, I hope our faint 
beginnings will one day be. made perfect, either 



TTTE SACUED IIEAKT. lill 

here or in Pargatory. But do not imagine that the 
work is done yet. I do not think that anybody is 
likely to fall into so great an error. All our con- 
formity to the Sacred Heart is the work of God in 
us ; and He perfects it in measure and degree as He 
sees to be for our good. He humbles us by making us 
wait. We desire to be sanctified with great speed, 
that we may be delivered from the bondage of our 
temptations. We pray to be Saints out of love to 
ourselves ; and if we were made Saints to-day, we 
might fall to-morrow, as the angels did, by self- 
contemplation. No ; God will make us periect as 
He sees fit ; every holy thought is from Him, every 
good desire, every beginning of better things. We 
should never turn tow^ards Him by a hair's-breadth 
if He did not first give the attraction and the im- 
pulse. His grace prevents us in everything. As the 
good shepherd goes out after the lost sheep, and 
the lost sheep would never find its way home if the 
^'ood shepherd did not first go out to seek it, so the 
Holy Spirit of God searches for us, and begins to 
turn us to Himself; and having begun that work in 
us, He carries it on and gives His grace in measure 
and in season, according to the needs and dangers of 
every soul. In Baptism we received a sacramental 
grace to make us children of God, and to enable us 



212 THE TRANSFORMING POWER OF 

to fulfil all the duties of a cliild of God ; and there 
is no duty, no obligation upon a child of God that a 
baptised soul, in its baptismal grace, has not the 
power and strength to fulfil. In our Confirmation 
we received the grace to be good soldiers of Jesus 
Christ— a measured grace proportioned and sufficient 
for every conflict. In our Communions we receive a 
grace straight from the Sacred Heart, to transform 
us into its likeness. If the many Communions that 
we have made from the day of our First Communion 
had been worthily made, we should now be disciples 
of the Sacred Heart indeed. You have been for ten, 
twenty, forty years in the practice of Communion, 
and I know not how often — and one Communion has 
in it grace enough to make us Saints — and what are 
you after all ? We are straitened not in Him but in 
ourselves. In every Communion we receive grace 
enough to conform us to the Sacred Heart; and if we 
fail in conformity to His perfection, it is because we 
on our side have hearts narrow and cold. Neverthe- 
less He bears with us in patience, and holds us fast 
with His love. What He begins, if we do not destroy 
it. He will perfect through our v/hole life. This pro- 
cess of transformation is His own, supernatural and 
divine — the operation of the uncreated Spirit of God. 
He it is who is working now in every one of you ; and 



THE SACRRD PIEART. 213 

therefore * with fear and trembling work out your 
salvation/ for this divine reason, that it is 'God that 
worketh in you to will and to accomplish. '-^'^ What 
is good in you is from Him. But it is not only His 
work — it must be yours too. Throughout the whole 
process of your salvation, with the exception of the 
first grace of all, your will must be united with His 
— you must work together with Him. We have the 
power at any moment to cast ourselves into eternal 
death ; we have the power at any moment to commit 
spiritual self-murder; we may abuse our freedom and 
commit mortal sin at any time. God will indeed 
by His grace draw and resist and warn us ; but He 
will not overbear our free will. He created that free 
will to His own image, and He respects the work of 
His own hands. He will not deface His ov»'n imago 
in us. But we naay also co-operate with Him in 
every gift of His grace, because He never commands 
anything that is impossible. Therefore whosoever 
w^ill use faithfully the grace that he has received 
shall receive greater grace ; and whosoever asks for 
more shall surely receive it. 

May God in His mercy perfect that work in you. 
You know the restless activity of your intellect. Is 
it conformed to the intelligence of Jesus by the 

19 Philip, ii. 13. 



214 THE TRANSFORMING POWER OF 

knowledge of the perfect truth which He has re- 
vealed ? Are you illuminated with the faith which 
He has declared for our salvation ? Or are you seek- 
ing for it? Or are you doing what tens of thousands 
are doing now, with a reckless scepticism explaining 
it away, and, as it were, filing asunder the links of 
truth which God has laid open to the reason of man 
to be known and believed upon His divine authority? 
Next, you are conscious of the turbulence of your 
heart. Is it yet detached from the world ? Is it 
united in love with our Divine Eedeemer ? And 
you know the instability and the impetuosity of your 
will. Is your will submissive to His will ? Are you 
docile to His divine inspirations ? Are you ready to 
obey His divine voice, to believe what He teaches, 
to do what He commands ? 

I have said that we are not yet Saints. But we 
are all called to be Saints — if not here, at least here- 
after. And there is one thing we are all called to be, 
from which no man can release himself. The obliga- 
tion is universal upon every man to be conformed to 
the example of Jesus Christ, and the example of 
Jesus Christ is not the example of His outward life 
alone. We are not called to be whited walls ; we are 
called also to the inward perfection of His Sacred 
Heart. He Himself has said it, and His words shall 



THE SACRED HEART. 215 

be my last : * Take up My yoke upon you, and leavn 
of Me; for I am meek and lowly of heart.' Answer 
to Him and say, ' Lord, make my heart to be like 
Thy Heart/ 



VIII. 

THE SURE WAY OF LIKENESS TO THE 
SACEED HEART. 



THE SURE WAY OF LIKENESS TO THE 
SACRED HEART. 



Take up My yoke upon yon, and learn of Me ; for I am meek and 
lowly of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. S. Matt. 
xi. 29. 

I HAVE spoken of the conformity which all must 
attain to the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
To be united with God we must be conformed to the 
image of His Son ; for if we be not conformed to 
the image of His Son, united with God we cannot 
be; and if we be not united with God, we cannot 
be saved. This was our last subject. I then 
pointed out, — from the words of S. Paul, where he 
says, ' We all, beholding, as with open face, the glory 
of the Lord, are transformed into the same image, 
from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord,'^ — 
that through the whole of our life, from our earliest 
consciousness to our latest moments, there must be 
a perpetual change — a transformation, always advanc- 
ing, from the great deformity in which all are born 

» 2 Cor. iii. 18. 



220 THE SURE WAY OF LIKENESS TO 

to perfect and final conformity to the likeness of 
Jesus Christ. We saw also that, for those who have 
fallen from their baptismal innocence, the trans- 
formation must begin in a reformation, that what 
has been defaced and destroyed must be begun over 
again. It must be reformed, and this does not only 
signify corrected, but the form which they had be- 
fore must be reproduced in the soul ; and lastly, that 
those who are reformed must be conformed to the 
mind of Christ, and that conformation signifies the 
full and perfect likeness, so far as we can attain it in 
this world, to the perfection of our Divine Lord, 

We have now to consider the means whereby we 
may attain that full conformity. Those means are 
twofold : they are either on God's part, or they are 
on our part. On God's part they are, first, the 
revelation of His glory, as S. Paul calls it ; that is to 
say, the image of God in the Face of Jesus Christ, or 
the full perfection of sanctity, of purity, of truth, and 
of humility, strange as the word may seem, for by 
the Incarnation God has assumed even lowliness 
into His perfections. Again, God perfects His ser- 
vants, first, by the sanctifying grace of His Holy 
Spirit ; secondly, by His holy Sacraments ; thirdly, 
by the discipline of His Providence ; and lastly, by 
the crosses and chastisements which He lays upon 



THE SACRED HEART. 221 

them, and by these means He conforms them to the 
image of His Son. 

But it is not my purpose to speak of the means 
which God employs on His part ; my purpose is to 
speak of the means on our part, that is to say, of 
what we must do — of that which is within our power, 
and therefore within our duty. 

1. Now, first of all, those who are baptised have 
been planted in grace, and that from their infancy. 
If they retain their baptismal innocence and per- 
severe steadfastly in the sanctifying grace which they 
have received in their regeneration, they may from that 
hour perpetually grow into a closer and closer con- 
formity to the likeness of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. 
The first condition, then, on our part is this : a con- 
stant fidelity to the grace of our Baptism. You are 
perhaps conscious, in looking back on your past life, 
of whole tracts and periods since your earliest con- 
sciousness, in which you have failed to correspond 
with your baptismal grace. Some of you, perhaps, 
remember how you have broken away from it altoge- 
ther, how you have cast behind you the law of God, 
and grieved the Spirit of God, and have departed from 
the w^ay of holiness ; others, again, who, by God's 
mercy, have been restrained from so great a fall, 
nevertheless are conscious hov/, from their earliest 



222 THE SURE WAY OF LIKENESS TO 

childhood, they have been grieving the Holy Spirit of 
God by a multitude of petty faults, constantly grow- 
ing in number and, it may be, in deliberation — 
how faults have multiplied over their whole charac- 
ter, and, though they have never come to any great 
downfall such as the world can know, and th'crefore 
have not, perhaps, altogether forfeited their baptismal 
grace, nevertheless they have retarded the continual 
expansion of the spiritual life which was planted in 
them in their regeneration. We read in the Lives 
of the Saints that many of them — I might almost 
say most of them ; for perhaps I should not err far 
from the truth if I were to say that, as a rule, those 
who have become conspicuous among the Saints of 
the Church — have had mothers of great holiness of 
life, and that their early training has preserved them 
in the grace of their Baptism. I will take, for 
example, S. Anselm, the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
of whom we read that his mother was a Saint, and 
that she taught him from his earliest infancy to 
know his Heavenly Father. There is recorded in 
his life a beautiful example of the childlike concep- 
tion he had of God. He dreamed one night that he 
was high up in the Alps over his native place, and 
that he was in the midst of a great reaping-field ; and 
in the midst of the reaping-field he saw the Lord of 



THE SACRED HEART. 22B 

the harvest. The master of that field called him 
to come. Anselm came to him with the confidence 
of a child, conscious at the same time that he was in 
the Divine Presence ; and the Lord of the harvest 
asked him his name. He told him, with the sim- 
plicity of a child, that his name was Anselm. The 
Lord of the harvest gave him his blessing and a piece 
of white bread. Now, I ask you, whence came that 
train of images ? How could a child, in his sleep, 
have such a vision of truth and beauty ? You will not 
say it was inspired. Then, if it was not inspired, it 
was learnt ; and if it was learnt, from whom ? A 
holy mother; and the continual instruction which fell 
from her lips had made the thought of God as a 
Father, and this intimate and personal relation of 
love a familiar thought to her child. Therefore, in 
his dream he had no fear of approaching his Heavenly 
Master, and when asked his name he told it with 
simplicity and confidence. Now I give this only as 
an illustration — I am not using it as an argument 
for anything, but as an example — to show what a 
holy mother may do vrith a child that is ' born 
again;' how, when the Spirit of God is in the 
soul of a child, a watchful and holy mother can train 
up an innocent soul from his infancy in a familiar 
and confiding knowledge of God. I might also take 



224 THE SURE WAY OF LIKENESS TO 

the example of S. Edmund of Canterbury, whose 
mother was eminent for holiness. She also, from his 
earliest years, taught him in like manner to know 
God. The whole of his bovhood and youth is full of 
all manner of tokens that his first thought of God 
was the love of God. 

They who are in their baptismal innocence have 
a special affinity with the Divine Justice ; they walk 
before God without fear, because in them there is 
no malice ; and the presence of God has no terror, 
for they think of Him, not so much as a judge, but 
as a father. They are ignorant of evil ; they have 
not yet learnt that which the men and women of the 
world believe to be the perfection of a manly or a 
mature character, that is, familiarity with the evil of 
this world, which cannot be known without a loss of 
unconsciousness of evil. To be ignorant of the evil 
of the world is a grace ; to be familiar with its evil 
is a temptation and a soil. Children who are inno- 
cent and ignorant of evil have a special affinity with 
the Kingdom of God and with the Spirit of God and 
with the mind of God. They understand things which 
those who believe themselves to be cultured intelli- 
gences cannot comprehend. When S. Paul says that 
Christ crucified was to the self-trusting Jews a stum- 
bling-block and to the cultured Greeks foolishness. 



THE SACRED HEART. 225 

he exjiresses this same truth. There is between the 
minds of little children and the mysteries of revelation 
a kindred and a sympathy, so thc.t they receive them 
as by intuition, and understand them better than 
their teachers. The Psalmist says, 'I was wiser than 
my teachers because I kept Thy commandments.' The 
mind of a little child is larger and more expanded 
for the conception of revealed truth than the mind of 
philosophers and sceptics, who narrow their under- 
standings with unreasonable and pertinacious doubt. 
And in such innocent and unconscious souls there is 
a perpetual growth of the spiritual life, a continual 
formation, an accretion, as we see in the forest tree, 
which, year by year, puts out an additional ring in 
the solidity of its stem ; and in its bulk and stature 
is continually though insensibly growing. So it is 
in the spiritual life of those who are faithful to their 
baptismal grace. In truth, little children are the 
nearest to the Saints ; and those vrho have childlike 
minds are the most saintly. Our Divine Lord has, 
twice over, taught us this. He said, ' Unless you be 
converted, and become as little children, you shall 
not enter into the kingdom of heaven ;'" and again 
He said, ' I confess to Thee, Father, Lord of 
heaven and earth' — that is, I thank Thee, — 'because 
2 S. Matt, xviii. 3. 
Q 



226 THE SURE VrAY OF LIKENESS TO 

Thou hast hid these things from the wise and pru- 
dent' — in their own eyes — ^ and hast revealed them 
unto little ones : yea, Father ; for so it hath seemed 
good in Thy sight. ''^ And therefore the first and 
chief means of our conformation is that we should be 
faithful with an even and continuous fidelity to our 
baptismal grace, 

2. And the second means is that we should make 
good confessions. Now why does the world hate 
the confessional ? I will tell you in a w^ord. Because 
the men of the world are afraid of laying their heart 
open. They know that there are black spots, that 
there are dark stains, deep w^ounds, old scars, open 
sores, and they hide them in darkness. The inno- 
cent have no fear, for their hearts are unspotted ; 
and though conscious of many faults and many 
weaknesses, they are free from the stains and the 
wounds of an evil life. They are not afraid : to them 
confession is easj^ But those w4io are conscious 
that they are carrying wdthin them a secret which 
the world does not know, of which their neighbours 
are not aware, which the nearest to them does not 
suspect, w^hich they would rather die than reveal — 
according to the shrinking of flesh and blood, for- 
getting all the while that God knows everything — 
3 S. Matt. xi. 25, 28. 



THE SACRED IIE.Vr.T. 227 

they fear and hate the thought of confession. This 
is the true reason why the world rails against con- 
fession ; this is the reason why every revolution that 
breaks out at once burns the confessional. It dare 
not come near the confessional. When it sees a con- 
fessional it sees a forerunning witness of the Great 
White Throne and of the Day of Judgment ; and to 
get rid of this intolerable reality the antichristiau 
revolution tears it out from the church and burns it 
in the streets. They who have kept their baptismal 
grace have no fear of the confessional. Why should 
they ? What have they got to say ? A great many 
omissions, a great many infirmities, a great many 
faults, and a great many tetnptations, it may be, but 
no habits of indulged sin; there are no stains of 
deliberate acts, none of those deep and searing re- 
collections of an evil life. Therefore they come 
readily; and like children, as they spiritually are, 
they say at once, kneeling under the crucifix in the 
confessional, so far as they know, all that their 
Heavenly Father has against them. It is because 
men break God's law in their hearts that they fear 
to confess. Therefore they put off their confession 
until it becomes hard ; for if they put it off, they 
begin to be careless, and they lay up new matter, and 
that matter multiplies, and the longer they put it 



228 THE SURE WAY OF LIKENESS TO 

oflf tlie more unwilling they grow. But those who are 
still in their baptismal innocence go on continually 
from light to light ; they go on knowing themselves 
more and more perfectly every time they come to 
confession, bringing with them no necessary matter 
of absolution, because no mortal sin ; they bring 
with them, indeed, many a venial sin, vvdiich does 
not break their friendship with God, for such sins 
come from infirmity and not from deliberation, or, 
at least, not from malice. And they are pardoned 
freely by the Precious Blood of our Divine Lord in 
their perfect absolution. You will find, therefore, 
that all those who are faithful to the grace which is 
in them love the Sacrament of Penance. Here is 
the difference between those w^hose conscience does 
not accuse them, and those whose conscience gives 
them a rebuke : the former come freely and gladly 
to accuse themselves, and the latter shrink away. 
The second way, then, to maintain this state of inno- 
cence before God is the habit of frequent and good 
confession. 

3. The third way is to avoid the occasions of sin. 
We must therefore understand exactly what the occa- 
sions of sin are. The Tempter covers the whole face 
of the earth with all rranner of snares. He spreads 
his nets in every path of life. The world, too, 



THE SACPtED HEART. 229 

covers itself over with toils. There are temptations 
of various kinds, in all manner of unlawful, for- 
bidden, and evil things. But these are not the occa- 
sions of sin of which I speak. Every temptation, 
indeed, is an occasion of sin ; but the occasions of sin 
of which I am speaking are not always temptations 
to things that are evil. An innocent conscience wdll 
at once start back from such temptations. An inno- 
cent person, v/ho lives in the fear of God, having 
the spirit of piety in him, if he be tempted to any 
action visibly and sensibly evil, w^ould be shocked 
and start aside. The Tempter often defeats himself, 
and temptations become warnings to awaken the 
conscience ; but an occasion of sin means something 
which is lawful, innocent, and harmless in itself, 
but nevertheless may, by some circumstance, either 
in others or in ourselves, be an occasion of falling. 
Let me take an example. It is lawful for us to use 
food, and drink ; and yet food may be the occasion of 
delicacy, indulgence, pampering of the body, and thus 
may be made the occasion of gluttony ; and gluttony 
is one of the seven capital sins. Drink also is law- 
ful, but drink may be intoxicating. Like poison, it 
may be lawfully taken, but not in a measure to de- 
stroy life or reason or moral sense. It becomes 
unlawful if the measure of it be unlawful. No man 



230 THE SURE WAY OF LIKENESS TO 

may take poison and destroy his life, and no man 
may take intoxicating drink and destroj^ his brain. 
He may take poison to allay pain, and he may take 
intoxicating drink if he believes that it sustains his 
strength. Many physicians do not believe it, but 
others do ; and while physicians debate, men will 
choose what they like best. But if a man abuses 
it, I say more, if women abuse iL — if the refined, 
from want of watchfulness over their habits, from an 
indulgence of their palate, or for the purpose of sti- 
mulating a languid and wearied frame, worn out by 
the excitements of society, or to keep up the flagging 
animal spirits after long hours of senseless talk and 
depressing waste of life ; if they form the secret habit 
of taking wine and intoxicating drink unknown to 
any one but God — and this stealthy habit is formed, 
I am sorry to say, every day by the refined and the 
delicate, whom the world never suspects — then this 
fatal abuse may become a bondage from which they 
may never be freed, and in which at last, in a miser- 
able unconsciousness, they die. Do not think that 
I am saying these things for the mere purpose of 
rhetorical effect. I have seen these wrecks, I have 
stood by them, I have watched them as they have 
settled down. I have seen strong drink m^astering 
the conscience and the will as the sea encroaches on 



THE SACr.ED HEART. 231 

the shore, until there was no help and no hope left. 
This is what I call an occasion of sin — a lawful thing 
abused. I might take many other examples. I will 
only take one more : I mean friendships. Nothing 
can be more lawful, nothing can be more innocent, 
nothing can be more helpful, if the friendship be 
good : nothing can be more dangerous, nothing more 
insidious, nothing more corrupting, if the friendship 
be evil. A bad book is a great evil, but a bad friend 
is worse. The whisper of a bad friend at the ear 
of an unwary soul is the most dangerous of all occa- 
sions. Friendship has a power of assimilation. A 
bad friend will change you into his own likeness. I 
say, then, that the avoiding the occasion of sin, 
watchfulness over what w^e do, where w^e go, what 
habits we form, what friendships w^e make, in what 
measure we indulge ourselves in the things that are 
lawful — is one of the surest means of conformity to 
the Sacred Heart. 

And here let me say one word to fathers and 
mothers. You are not conscious of the harm that you 
do, or allow to be done, to your children, by taking 
them into the midst of pleasures, the very sounds 
and sights of which you know to have a taint upon 
them. You say that you believe your children are 
too young to be hurt. Believe it not. Sometimes a 



232 THE SURE WAY OF LIKENESS TO 

silent child sits in the midst of grown people, Vvhile 
their tongues are going, without bridle or caution, of 
matters which they think the child cannot under- 
stand ; but that young intelligence drinks-in every 
word ; and though the conceptions formed may not 
be of the same experienced accuracy as in those 
who speak, they are abundantly sufiScient to sow 
the seeds of evil in the soul, to awaken dangerous 
curiosities which taint it, and come out fatally some 
day in after life. I have sometimes listened in 
amazement at the unguarded license of speech, the 
surpassing imprudence, vrith which grown people 
will speak in the presence of the young. Those 
young ears are quick to hear, and those young heart's 
are quick to understand, beyond all that you can 
conceive. There is an old saying, even of the 
heathen, that ' great reverence is due to a boy.' The 
actions, the examples, the words, the conduct of 
grown people in the presence even of little children, 
ought to be under a great restraint. You will re- 
member the words of our Lord : "Woe to him that 
shall cause to offend one of these little ones. ' It 
were better for him that a millstone were tied about 
his neck, and that he were cast into the sea.'^ And 
again He said, * Their angels in heaven always see the 

* S. Matt, xviii. 6. 



THE SACrwED HEART. 233 

face of My Father who is in heaven.'^ These silent 
children have guardian angels, who are looking up 
into the face of God, and looking down in w^onder 
upon 3^ou if, through your imprudence, you either act 
or speak unwisely in their presence. And once more. 
I have no doubt the fathers and mothers who heai' 
me have had among their children some one whom, 
they have thought precocious ; and it is a common 
saying, ^ Such a child, I believe, will not be long in 
this world; he seems not fit for it; he is always 
talking of God; he has always in his mouth the 
name of our Lord ; he seems to have a sort of afi&nity 
to things of the w^orld to come ; he is not long for 
this life.' Now do you believe that this early ripe- 
ness is something morbid or exceptional ? Not at all. 
It is the state in w^hich all baptised children might 
be, if you were faithful and watchful in training 
them for God. I do not say every baptised child 
would be in this state, but I say might be. I can- 
not doubt that you yourselves have knowm what you 
would call examples of early piety, of habitual con- 
sciousness of the Divine Presence, of ardent love 
for holy things, of vivid perception of the love and the 
Passion of our Divine Lord — of heartfelt sympathy 
with everything that relates to His Person — far 
« S. Matt, xviii. 10. 



234 THE SURE WAY OF LIKENESS TO 

beyond all you have in yourselves. What does it 
come from ? It comes from the grace of their Bap- 
tism, which continually expands within them, if only 
the scenes that are round about them, the atmosphere 
of their homes, the influence of your lives, the occa- 
sions of sin, shall not taint or suppress the growth 
of their spiritual life. 

4. Another means of this conformity is the know- 
ledge of ourselves. Why is it that so few people have 
a thorough knowledge of their own character? I be- 
lieve it is this : they have not steadily grown up in 
the light of the Divine Presence ; they have gone out 
from it, at certain periods of their life, into the outei 
darkness ; and when they have returned into the light 
again, they are like men that come into a light too 
great for their sight to bear ; they have lived for a time 
unconscious of their own state, and they have not 
been able to catch up again the threads, and to keep 
pace with the growth of their own natural character. 
From this it comes that they understand other people 
better than they understand themselves ; and they 
have in them a self-love which always dims their view 
of themselves. Our own hearts are deceitful ; there is 
nothing more difficult to unravel, and therefore self- 
knowledge is a rare thing. There are three lights 
in which we can always know ourselves if we will. 



THE SACIIED HEART. 235 

The first is the light of God's presence. If we would 
only place ourselves every day in the presence of the 
divine perfections ; if we would make a meditation 
of a few moments upon the infinite sanctity of God, 
the infinite purity, the infinite truth, the infinite 
justice, and the infinite mercy of God, and then 
compare ourselves with these perfections : * Am I 
holy, am I pure, am I truthful, am I just, am I 
charitable, am I compassionate, after the example of 
my Divine Master? Alas, I know this, that '^ His eyes 
are as a flame of fire ;" and when He looks into me. 
He sees how deformed and how unlike to Him I am. 
I know that in His sight the moon shineth not, and 
the stars are not pure ; and what, then, am I T If 
we only placed ourselves in this light every day, and 
often in the day, we should begin to know ourselves. 
But there is another light in which to see our- 
selves — the light of the Sacrament of Penance. 
Whenever a man makes a true and good confes- 
sion, he acquires more inward light to know him- 
self; it is a part of the sacramental grace which 
is given with absolution. We read in the history 
of the Church of great Saints who went to con- 
fession every day of their lives, for instance, S. 
Charles, the great pastor and Archbishop of Milan. 
You might ask. What could he have to say ? what 



236 THE SURE WAY OF LIKENESS TO 

could he find of which to accuse himself ? He 
lived a holy life in perpetual self-denial, giving 
himself altogether for his flock, — what could he 
have to confess? He had, indeed, no mortal sins 
to confess, — no ; nor had he many venial sins. Per- 
haps not. But he may have had many omissions 
and temptations, many interior movements of im- 
patience, of resentment, of a strong will, ready to 
battle with all that came across its path. Because 
he was a Saint he had a consciousness of internal 
imperfections, of a warfare and a tumult within him 
which we have still more, but do not perceive. You 
do not think these things matters of confession ; but 
he did. He compared himself with the perfections 
of his Master ; and if we did so, we should see that 
the things which we condone and absolve in our- 
selves so readily are of the nature of sin. Next, 
perhaps, he never lay down at night without being 
conscious of a great many omissions throughout the 
day, of good left undone, of opportunities which he 
had not used, of occasions in which he might have 
given help to some soul, or have spoken a v/ord that 
might have brought some one to God. Perhaps 
these are omissions that we think very little about ; 
but he thought much about them. He thought them 
matters of self-accusation. 



THE SACKED HEART. 237 

Y/e will take another Saint, a Bishop in England 
— S. Thomas of Hereford — a most fervent pastor, 
a man vvho lived a whole life of apostolic labour, 
' spending and being spent' for the sake of his 
flock. When he was on his deathbed, his chap- 
lains, who were round about him, said, ^My lord, 
would you not like to go to confession ?' and he 
looked at them and said, * Foolish men.' After a 
little pause they said again, ^ Do you not know that 
your time is drawing near? The leech says you can- 
not live much longer. Would you not like to see the 
confessor ?' He said, ^ Foolish men.' A third time 
they said the same thing : ^ The time must be near ; 
would you not desire to make your peace with God ?' 
And a third time he made the same answer ; and so 
he died. Afterwards it was found that he went to 
confession every day. He had no need of their 
counsel ; but he had no will to reveal what had 
been the habit of his life. 

There is one more light in which we shall learn 
to know ourselves, and that is, the light of the 
Sacred Heart of our Divine Master. The Sacred 
Heart has three relations — its relation towards God, 
its relation towards mankind at large, and its re- 
lation towards each one of us personally. Let us 
set that before ns and make examination of our- 



238 THE SURE WAY OF LIKENESS TO 

selves. The relation of the Heart of Jesus towards 
His Heavenly Father — what piety, what love, what 
fervour, what self-forgetfulness, what self-denial, what 
self-sacrifice. What is there in you corresponding 
to this? Alas, what is there in us? Again, the 
relation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to mankind. 
What charity, what forgiveness, what generosity, 
what pity, what compassion, what intercession. 
What is there in us towards our neighbour like 
this ? Thirdly, the relation of the Sacred Heart 
of Jesus towards ourselves personally. What tender- 
ness, what long-suffering, what exquisite kindness, 
what delicate forbearance, what hopefulness, that, 
being such as we are, full of sins as we know, and 
as He knows better than we, even to this day He 
has borne with us; and He has not 'broken the 
bruised reed, nor quenched the smoking flax.' Let 
us compare this with ourselves, and see whether 
we can stand this test, and we shall learn to know 
ourselves. 

5. And then, lastly, if any one desires to preserve 
his baptismal grace, he must be a man of prayer. A 
man without prayer is dead before God. If he does 
not live in union with God, speaking with God, con- 
versing with God, depend upon it there can be little 
union of love between God and him. There may be 



THE SACRED HEART. 239 

faith that God exists, and there may be a hope that 
some day he may begin to pray ; but union of charity 
between God and a prayerless soul there cannot be. 
It is by prayer that we appreciate w^hat God is. 
When the heart ascends by the intellect to the 
knowledge of God, when it ascends by the affections 
to the love of God, and w^hen it ascends by the will 
to the resolution of holding fast by God, then we 
begin to realise that God is above all things, and 
w^orthy of all love and adoration, and that it were 
better for a man to lose the whole world than to 
lose the vision of God in eternity. And this is to be 
learnt in prayer, and in prayer only. The man that 
prays realises also the relation of God to himself as 
a father, and the personal relation of Jesus Christ 
to him as a kinsman and a brother and a friend. 
And, further, by the light of prayer and contempla- 
tion of God and of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a man 
is ^ changed into the same likeness from glory to 
glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.' 

We know that friends who love one another be- 
come like to each other; they catch the very tones 
of each other's voices ; they exchange the very look 
of each other's countenances — features the most dis- 
similar acquire a strange likeness in expression. So 
it is with our souls, if we live in the habit of prayer ; 



240 THE SURE WAY OF LIKENESS TO 

that IS, of conversing and of speaking with onr Divine 
Friend. When Stephen stood before the council, his 
face shone like the face of an angel. The light of the 
presence of his Master in heaven fell upon it. And 
they who live a life of prayer are being ever changed 
into the likeness of their Divine Lord. I do not 
mean that they are outwardly transformed ; I do not 
mean that there come rays out of their hands or 
their side, or that there is any resplendent light 
upon their countenances ; but I mean this, that there 
is a gentleness, a sweetness, a kindness, a lowliness, 
an attraction about their life which makes everybody 
at peace with them. Everybody draws near to them 
with a tranquil confidence and a rest of heart. We 
know that with some people, though they are good and 
just, yet when w^e approach them we have a sense 
of fear ; but where there is in any man a likeness to 
the Sacred Heart of Jesus there is an attraction which 
goes out from him. As our Divine Master said : 
*I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all 
things unto Me ;' so He communicates to His ser- 
vants, who are like Him, the same power of attract- 
ing others. The w^orld calls it fascination ; but what 
the world calls fascination is simply this, that in the 
measure in which men have the likeness of the Sacred 
Heart of Jesus, they draw others to themselves. 



THE SACRED IIEAKT. 241 

Just as He would draw men unto Himself if He were 
visible now, they do it in His stead. x\nd there is a 
special strength and calm and sweetness in such 
characters, a sweetness which everybody feels — not 
simply in their charity, but in the finer influences of 
their charity, of charity carried into the least things, 
into the delicate consideration of what is due to 
others ; not only of what is just to them, but what is 
equitable ; not only what ought to be done in such 
a case, but what would be the best, the highest, 
the most generous, and the noblest thing to do. 
And the bearing of such men is calm, because they 
are never thrown off their balance ; they live in the 
Divine Presence, and they neither fear anything nor 
court anything. The world cannot bribe them ; the 
v/orld cannot terrify them. And because they are 
independent of the w^orld, they are inflexible ; they 
have a gift of strength and of fortitude, and they 
leave their impression upon everybody around them, 
and they take their impressions from no one but 
from their Divine Master. 

Now here, in outline and very insufficiently, is 
the way in which we, if we w^ere faithful, might be 
continually grovv^ing into the likeness of our Divine 
Lord. If by fidelity to our baptismal grace, by good 
confession, by avoiding the occasions of .sins which 

R 



242 TUB SURE WAY OF LIKENESS TO 

taint the soul, by growing in self-knowledge, and 
by living a life of prayer — if we would only so bold 
fast by the Sacred Heart, then assuredly God, on 
His part, would perpetually transform us into the 
same image by His Spirit of Grace. 

I cannot help saying one word more of warning 
to parents. If these things be so, what, in the 
Name of God, are some parents doing, who are ready 
to give over their children to secular instruction and 
secular schools? Their first and chief aim is the 
cultivation of the intellect, and their last thought 
is the training and formation of the spiritual and 
moral life. These are the fathers and mothers 
who are wrecking the baptismal innocence of their 
ojffspring. They who ought to be guarding it are 
they who, of their own folly, are exposing it to every 
peril. They who ought to be sheltering their chil- 
dren in innocence and ignorance of e^ils which 
ought never to cross their soul are they who are ex- 
posing them to temptation all the day long. I can 
but say this in passing. The subject is too great 
to go into it now ; it needs an ampler time. There- 
fore I beseech you who have any influence either over 
children or over parents, or over education in any 
form, never to depart from the great line and law of 
Christian education, namely, that the education of a 



THE CACHED HEART. 243 

child born again in the Sacrament of Baptism is the 
building up of God's spiritual work in the soul. 
You are called to be fellow-workers with God in the 
transforming of your children into the image of the 
Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

I might also have added how precious life is, if 
only from our infancy we had all been faithful, if 
only from our childhood we had persevered in the 
brightness and freshness of grace in which the Holy 
Ghost planted us at the font. If now, in the vigour 
and strength of our manhood, or in the maturity of 
our older years, we were, not only what we are by the 
experience of life, but also that which we were in 
the innocence of our early childhood, we should be 
nearer to the Sacred Heart, weak and sinful as we 
may be. Nevertheless, see ' how great a charity our 
Heavenly Father hath bestowed upon us, that we 
should be called and should be the sons of God. 
Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew 
Him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and 
it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we 
know that when He shall appear w^e shall be like 
Him, and we shall see Him as He is/^ 

« S. Jolin iii. 1, 2. 



IX. 

THE SIGNS OF THE SACKED HEART, 



THE SIGNS OF THE SACRED HEART, 



If our heart reprehend us not, then we have confidence towards 
God. Dearly beloved, if our heart reprehend us, God is greater 
than our heart, and knoweth all things. 1 S. John iii. 20, 21. 

We have already seen in what conformity consists. 
S. Paul, writing to the Romans, says, ^Be not con- 
formed to this world, but be ye reformed in the new- 
ness of your minds ;' that is to say, ' Put off the 
w^orld, for they that love the w'orld are at enmity with 
God: be reformed, made over again, recreated, be- 
come nev\^ creatures.' Our reformation is nothing 
less than a new creation ; and conformity consists, as 
we have seen, chiefly in humility, wiiich lays the 
axe to the root of our pride ; and in charity, w^hich 
quenches our natural auger; and in forgetfulness of 
self, which is the direct contrary to the passion that 
governs most men — the love of self. We have also 
considered the means whereby this transformation 
into conformity is to be effected ; and w^e saw, as 
you will remember, that these means consist in a 



248 THE SIGNS OF THE SACRED HEART. 

steady and constant fidelity to our baptismal grace ; 
secondly, if we depart from it, in good confession ; 
thirdly, in avoiding the occasions of sin ; fourthly, in 
a true knowledge of ourselves ; and lastly, in a habit 
and spirit of prayer. 

We come now to our third subject, namely, to the 
signs or the marks whereby we may know whether 
this transformation is being WTOUght in us or not. 
It is very necessary that we should know what are 
the certain explicit marks of this change, because we 
are all of us in danger of self-deception. There is 
not, perhaps, one of us who does not think of him- 
self more than he deserves before God ; there is not 
one of us who is not in danger of self-love, and self- 
love paints for itself all manner of pleasant pictures : 
and w^hat we paint we believe ourselves to be. We 
set before our minds, by a sort of intellectual simu- 
lation — that is, by a creative imagination of our own, 
out of the lives of Saints and out of our own desires 
— a vision of what we wish to be, and then sometimes 
we straightway think that we have attained it. We 
have need to stand in awe of ourselves ; and when S. 
John said, ^ If our heart condemn us, God is greater 
than our heart, and knoweth all things,' he means 
to tell us that there is a higher judge more discern- 
ing, more just than we arc, wiio is always searching 



THE SIGNS OF THE SACRED HEART. 249 

US. We, in our partiality, are continually absolving 
ourselves when we do not deserve absolution, and 
continually commending ourselves when we deserve 
blame. * If our heart reprehend us not, then we 
have confidence,' and only then ; and yet God sees 
what we do not ; for w^e know that Satan can change 
himself into an angel of light, and he can even de- 
ceive us into believing that w^e are invested with a 
multitude of graces which we do not possess ; that we 
have beautiful and luminous characters to which we 
bear no likeness. Many a tree has exuberant foliage 
and spreads its branches heavy with leaves, but there 
is not a fruit to be found upon it ; you all remember 
the barren fig-tree. Therefore we have need to fix 
upon some certain test by which to examine our- 
selves. S. John by the word ^ heart ' means our 
conscience ; for our conscience is made up of our 
intellect judging of right and wrong, and our moral 
sense approving or condemning : it is therefore a 
united intellectual and moral act. The intellect 
sitting as a moral judge is the conscience ; and the 
conscience is the heart, because it passes sentence, a 
moral sentence following upon the judgment of the 
intellect ; both act as one tribunal with a concurrent 
jurisdiction : and therefore here the word ^ heart ' 
signifies emphatically the conscience, but it means 



250 THE SIGNS OF THE SACRED HEART. 

also the whole soul. If our soul condemn us not by 
our inward spiritual consciousness, then we have con- 
fidence towards God. 

Now, first of all, it is clear that whosoever know- 
ingly commits any deliberate sin has the mark of 
deformity upon him. If we had the deliberate choice 
offered to us of committing a mortal sin against God 
or of dying on the spot, we ought, without a moment's 
doubt, to choose rather to die than to sin mortally ; 
for to die is only the death of the body, but mortal 
sin is the death of the soul. Any man who has not 
reached that point certainly has no mark whatsoever 
of conformity to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He has 
the first great mark of conformity to Satan. Next, if 
the choice were offered to us of committing delibe- 
rately even a venial sin, we ought to suffer any pain 
or any loss in this world rather than commit it. We 
can have but little hatred of sin, but little love of 
God, and but little sense of gratitude if we would not 
readily choose to suffer anything rather than delibe- 
rately to sin against God, even though it be only by 
a venial sin. S. John says in this same epistle, 
* Whosoever is born of God committeth not sin, for 
His seed abideth in him, and he cannot sin because 
he is born of God.'^ When he says ^ he cannot sin,' 
lis. John iii. 9. 



THE SIGNS OF THE SACRED HEART. 251 

he does not mean that ib is a physical impossibility, 
that his free will has not the power ; but it means 
that his moral being is so changed, so renewed, so 
conformed to the wdll of God, that to sin would vio- 
late his own new nature. It w^ould be an outrage to 
his own will ; it would violate his own higher and 
better self if he were to commit an act contrary to 
the will of God, with whose will his own is iden- 
tified. We will now go on to the marks by which 
to judge ourselves. 

It is clear that the signs we are to look for are not 
external signs, but internal altogether. 

1. And the first sign is denial of self. Lest I 
should seem to use language which sounds too large, 
I will not say mortification of self, but I will say self- 
denial. Every man acknowledges — every one who 
leads the simplest, I was going to say the lowest, life 
that deserves to be called Christian — acknowledges 
the duty of self-denial. S. Paul so drawls our Lord's 
character — ' Christ did not plaase Himself.'^ And 
this is the first sign of our being transformed into 
the likeness of the Sacred Heart. If a man were to 
work miracles, that would not suffice ; for, as our Lord 
has said. Many shall come in that day, and say. 
Lord, Lord, in Thy name we have cast out devils, and 

2 Pvom. XV. 3. 



252 THE SIGNS OF THE SACHED HEART, 

done many mighty works ; and He will say, Depart 
from Me ; I never knew yon. And if a man were 
to do all manner of splendid works and succeed in 
vast enterprises which the world counts to be for the 
glory of God, it is not enough ; for we know the ftite 
of those who go round about land and sea to make one 
proselyte, and when he is made he is twofold more 
the child of hell than themselves.^ Neither, again, are 
long prayers a certain evidence, for the Pharisees 
made prayers longer than yours : nor, again, know- 
ledge, nor alms-giving, because S. Paul says that 
all these things, and even martyrdom itself, without 
the love of God, are nothing. Neither, finally, are 
mortifications, such as fastings, disciplines, watcli- 
ings, and the like ; all these are also nothing before 
God, unless there be a true inward denial of self — a 
mortification of the intellect and heart and will. You 
remember the vision of S. Antony. The tempter 
came to him and said, * Antony, you fast a great deal, 
but I never eat ; you watch, but I never sleep ; you 
mortify the body, but I have no body to mortify : 
but j^ou do one thing I cannot — I cannot obey/ 
Therefore the denial of our own will is the first sure 
test. Now men may be classed in three ways, and 
no one can escape this classification : either they 
3 S. Matt, xxiii. 15. . 



THE SIGNS OF THE SACRED HEART. 253 

are self-pleasers, or they are men-pleasers, or they 
are pleasers of God. In one of these three every 
man will find himself. As for being self-pleasers, 
it means this : that we have our own will as our mo- 
tive, and our own liking as our law. As for being 
men-pleasers, it is only another form of pleasing 
ourselves. It is for interest, or for pleasure, or for 
gain, or for honour, or for some other personal pur- 
pose that we seek to please men. But to be pleasers 
of God simply means that we take the example of our 
Divine Lord as our model. ' Christ did not please 
Himself;' that is to say, every act of His life was 
done for a higher, purer, nobler motive, and, whe- 
ther it pleased self or not, was His last thought. 
All things high and pure and noble pleased the 
Sacred Heart, but it was not for that cause that He 
did these things. If I were to give examples, the 
subject of self-denial would be inexhaustible. You 
have the opportunity in your daily life of denying 
your own will. All the day long you have oppor- 
tunities without number : first of all, denying your- 
selves for the sake of others ; giving up your own will 
to theirs ; preferring them before yourselves ; giving 
them the first place, serving them, and asking nothing 
in return ; exacting nothing for what costs you most ; 
doing it in silence, and never speaking of what you have 



254 THE SIGNS OF THE SACRED HEART. 

done. If you will do these things for human friends, 
you will promptly deny yourselves wdienever you see 
anything that you can do, even if it be at some cost 
to yourselves, for the honour and the glory of God. 
There is no mistake about this test. In itself it is 
unpalatable to nature ; and no man goes against his 
own will for the sake of pleasing himself. He has a 
higher motive — the love of the Sacred Heart and 
desire of conformity to his Master. 

2. Secondly, another sign in which we cannot be 
mistaken is charity towards others. The whole per- 
fection of man in time and in eternity is made up of 
charity to God and to our neighbour. Eternal bliss 
by union with God is charity. Now by charity I do 
not mean giving alms, and I do not mean giving 
bread to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, and the 
like ; all that is a part of the law of nature ; mere 
humanity prompts it and demands it. 

The charity of the spiritual order is a divine 
character. Let us take it in examples. First, there 
is charity towards the sins of others. If we see any- 
thing which our heart would condemn in ourselves, 
before we condemn others let us think wdiat perhaps 
may have been their childhood, their education, their 
opportunities, their privations; let us think also 
what may have been their temptations, how things 



THE SIGNS OF THE SACRED HEART. 255 

Vvliicli in us would be sins, in them perhaps, from 
want of light, may be hardly faults. Once more : we 
must charitably judge of their intentions, of what 
they mean, knowing that the will and the deed are 
the same. Let us also charitably consider their 
follies, and not burst out like a flame, as we often do, 
at the foolish conduct of others. The Sacred Heart 
bears with our follies, and they are many. Let us be 
charitable also to their falls, remembering that we 
stand by the help of God, and by that alone. ' By 
the grace of God I am that which I am.* In the 
sight of God we may be more guilty than they. 
When our Divine Lord was upon earth. He was 
surrounded all the day long by sinners — sinners on 
every side, sinners of every kind, sinners in every 
degree;, and yet He bore with them with a sweet- 
ness, a patience, and a gentleness which were never 
exhausted, never rufiled. He was even reproached 
for His lenity, as if He were indifferent to sin. He 
was called ' the friend of sinners ;' as if He loved their 
society. ' This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with 
them ;' as if He sought them by His own choice. But 
He ^pleased not Himself.' Nor did He suffer among 
sinners only. Li the midst of His disciples, of those 
who came to Him as His friends, what follies, what 
faults, what contentions, what jealousies, what weari- 



256 THE SIGNS OF THE SACRED HEART. 

some misunderstandings ; and yet He bore them all. 
He was surrounded by His chosen Apostles, whom He 
had selected to be nearest to Himself, and whom He 
destined to be most like Himself; and yet what con- 
tentions, w^hat rivalries, what ambitions, what self- 
seeking, what indignation against each other, what 
misconceptions of His words, what slowness to be- 
lieve ; yet how He bore with all their imperfections. 
We never hear a word of sharp reproof out of His 
mouth, never a word of hasty condemnation. This 
is the patient love of the Sacred Heart ; and unless 
we are somewhat like it in this, be it ever so little, 
the work of transformation cannot be far advanced 
in us. 

3. And then, thirdly, there is only one person in 
the world to whom we may be severe. There is one 
who deserves it, and we may vent all our severity on 
that person, and that person is. our own self. A sure 
token of a charitable heart will be that a man is 
gentle to everybody, but unsparing to himself; that is 
to say, he will remember that there is nobody whom 
he knows to have committed more sins than he knows 
of himself. Why, I ask you, did S. Paul say that 
he was Hhe chief of sinners'? He was not using 
exaggeration, neither was he speaking rhetorically. 
He did not mean to deceive anybody ; he meant what 



THE SIGNS OF THE SACRED HEART. 257 

he Bdicl ; and what, then, did he mean ? He meant 
this : * I know my own consciousness from my child- 
hood to this day ; and the history of my past is upon 
me as far and as fully as my memory reaches, and 
that knowledge is next to the knowledge that God 
has of me. I know therefore there is no one that I 
know as I know myself, and no man knows me as I 
know myself; and though I may see other men 
commit many sins, yet I never see any man commit 
so many as I can number in myself wdien I go back 
to the beginning of my life and look over my boy- 
hood, youth, and manhood, running down to the pre- 
sent moment. I can see sins of commission, sins of 
omission, venial sins, alas, perhaps mortal too. I 
see there a long reckoning which I can number and 
count up, and I cannot number or count up the same 
amount of sins in any other man. And, next, I 
know nobody who has received so many graces of the 
Holy Spirit as God in His goodness has bestowed 
upon me, I was struck down on the way to Damas- 
cus when I was bent on persecuting the disciples of 
Jesus ; I was converted in the midst of my sins, by 
a miracle of grace, by a vision of my Divine Savi- 
our, and by the powder of the Holy Ghost; and I 
know nobody that has ever had a grace so great nor 
a conversion so miraculous. And if, after such a 

s 



258 THE SIGNS OF TRE SACIlED HEART. 

miracle of grace as that, I am what I am, and what 
I know myself to be, certainly I know of no one 
more sinful, no one who has received such tokens of 
God's love, and who has done so little in return.' If 
you remember how many are the gifts and the graces 
of the Holy Spirit which you have received ever since 
your baptism, — how abundantly and how generously 
God has dealt with you ; how He has shovm you the 
light of His Truth, and has drawn you by the attrac- 
tion of His Love, and has striven to bring you to Him- 
self ; and how often you have resisted, how often you 
have gone out of the way, how often you have turned 
a blind eye and a deaf ear ; how often you have taken 
your hand from the plough, how often you have 
turned back again ; with what languid and lingering 
steps you have returned, and how little heart you had 
to go back to God — what little use you have made of 
all those graces — if you cast up this great account, 
and set on one side the mercies of God to you, and on 
the other the abuse of His gifts and the little profit 
and advancement you have made, I think there is 
not one of us that will not say, ' I see a great many 
sinners round about me ; I see a great many who 
have done more glaring and open sins than I have ; 
but I must confess that, though there is many a man 
who may have committed more grievous material 



THE SIGNS OF THE SACRED HEART. 259 

sins than I have, yet I know of no sins which have 
been committed with the formal sinfuhiess that I 
know in myself. And, therefore, I can say with 
truth, ^' sinners of whom I am chief." ' This is what 
the jipostle meant, and this is what every one of us 
must also say. Well, then, if we so know ourselves, 
we shall most assuredly be severe to nobody else. 
The parable of the Pharisee and the publican teaches 
us that lesson. The Pharisee did not know himself, 
and he stood by himself in the temple, and looked 
upon the poor publican afar off. The Pharisee went 
boldly into the temple ; the poor publican standing 
at a distance w^ould not so much as lift up his eyes ; 
and the Pharisee said, ^ God, I thank Thee that I am 
not as other men are, nor even as this publican. I 
give tithes of all that I possess, I fast twice in the 
week;' and so on. And the other beat upon his breast 
and said, ^ God, be merciful to me a sinner.' And of 
the two, which went down to his house justified ; that 
is, forgiven, absolved, and at peace wdth God ? Once 
more. You will remember when our Divine Saviour 
sat at the table of Simon the Pharisee. Simon was 
a just man. There is no reason to believe that 
this Pharisee was other than a man who lived in the 
fear of God and literally kept His commandments ; 
but he was a man whose charity was small and whose 



260 THE SIGNS OF THE SACRED HEABT. 

severity was great, and both were expressed. His cha- 
rity was for himself, and his severity was for his neigh- 
bour. In this case his severity fell upon the Son of 
God, and he said, ' This man, if He were a prophet, 
would have known who and what manner of woman 
this is that touches Him ;' and he condemned Him 
in his heart. Let this be a warning. If w^e have 
charity to others, the severity will be upon ourselves ; 
we shall never spare our own faults. We shall re- 
member the words, * Judge not, that ye be not 
judged;' and 'Why say to your neighbour, Let me 
pull out the mote that is in thine eye, and seest not 
the beam that is in thine own eye ?' and ' He shall 
have judgment without mercy who has shown no 
mercy ; for mercy shall rejoice against judgment.' 

4. Another test is a mistrust of ourselves. There 
is no more dangerous fault than trust in self, when any 
one thinks he may do whatsoever he will, go wherever 
he likes, see whatever he chooses, lay down the law 
for himself, have no fear of temptation, and no care 
to avoid the occasions of sin. Such a man savs, 'I 
can trust myself. I know where I go, I know what 
I do ; I can take care of myself, or God will take care 
of me ;' forgetting that we say every day of our lives, 
* Lead us not into tempation ; but deliver us from 
evil;' that is to say, 'We wdll take care, as far as we can^ 



THE SIGNS OF THE SACHED nEART. 261 

not to go into the temptation ; but do Thou, Lord, 
watch over us and keep us from all evil.' No man can 
hope that he will be kept by a divine protection if he 
does not watch over himself. All this is self-trust. 
Now what is self-mistrust ? It is a great fear of our 
own will, and a great trust in God alone. It is the con- 
sciousness that without Him we can do nothing ; that 
without God we cannot stand ; that without God we 
should do all evil. We ought to remember what we 
were when we were born into this world — spiritually 
dead ; and after we had received the grace of Baptism, 
what we made ourselves again. Each one who will 
remember his own history, and will then ask him- 
self, ' What am I now ?' will answer, ^ I am at best 
only half transformed into the image of my Saviour, 
and I am therefore still half deformed in the sight of 
God — half conformed and half deformed, a mixture of 
good and evil. As I am half conformed I see myself, 
and I desire to do right ; and as I am half deformed, 
I am blind and very weak, and therefore what should 
I be at this moment if God had not kept me from 
ruining myself?' S. Philip used to say, 'Keep Thy 
hand upon me, put Thy hand upon my head ; for if 
Thou shouldst let me go, I should do Thee all man- 
ner of harm.' Our only trust is in the keeping of God, 
in that influx of the power of God by which we live 



262 THE SIGNS OF THE SACRED HEART. 

and move and are ; and in the support of tlie grace 
of God, by whicli alone we can do good and can avoid 
evil for a moment. Therefore the Apostle says, ^ Let 
him that thinketh himself to stand take heed lest he 
fall.'^ Wheresoever there is this mistrust of self, 
there will always be found, as I said before, great 
charity to others, and a very great care and love for 
the souls of sinners, with a great desire to work for 
our Divine Lord in their salvation. 

5. And lastly — for I will give only one more test 
— where there is a conformity to the Sacred Heart of 
our Lord, there will be a spirit of praise. The spirit 
of praise and the spirit of prayer ought to go to- 
gether. But nothing is more certain than that we 
pray very often and that we praise but very seldom. 
We pray because w^e know our wants — hunger and 
thirst and sorrow and trouble will drive us to pray ; 
and when we have received the answers to our 
prayers, we go our way without thanking the Giver. 
And yet the whole of our eternity will be made up of 
praise, for there there will be no more prayer ; and 
if we do not begin to learn the spirit of praise in 
this world, how shall we praise God in eternity ? 
If we are not now in harmony with the praise which 
goes up before the Throne, how can we be meet for 

'- 1 Cor. X. 12. 



THE SIGNS OP THE SACRED HEART. 263 

the inheritance of the Kingdom of God ? Are we 
even in harmony with the servants of God upon 
earth — I will not say with the Apostles and with 
the Saints of the Christian law, but with the ser- 
vants of God under the old law? Take the Book 
of Psalms : w^hat is it from beginning to end but 
one continual voice of praise to God for His good- 
ness? And in what does praise consist? It con- 
sists in acts of love and contemplation, of joy and 
thanksgiving. How often do we make these acts in 
our devotions ? And have we not matter enough 
for them ? For instance : for the multitude of our 
graces, for our very existence, for our prolonged ex- 
istence after our many sins, for the image of God 
that is in us, for the continued power of knowing 
and of loving Him. We were made to be the chil- 
dren of God, and He has bowed down, as it were, 
to take up our manhood that He might make us the 
friends of God ; and yet we do not praise Him. We 
have to thank Him for oar redemption, for the Most 
Precious Blood that was shed for us, for the coming 
and the infusion of the Holy Ghost, for the perpetual 
inspirations of grace, for the whole tissue and chain 
of our spiritual and supernatural life. We have also 
to thank Him for our salvation, one by one person- 
ally ; that is, for the redemption applied to ourselves. 



264 THE SIGNS OF THE SACEED HEART. 

The most potent medicine ^liich infallibly heals will 
heal nobody unless it be applied. If the Precious 
Blood be not applied to us, we shall not be cleansed ; 
but it has been applied to us, without our seeking, 
in our Baptism. It has been renewed to us in ou"!: 
absolutions; it has been sprinkled upon us all the 
day long when we have made acts of true contrition. 
For all these things w^e owe Him continual praise. 
Can we be conscious of our own sinfulness, of oui 
unprofitableness, of our unworthiness, of our nothing- 
ness before Him, and that we are yet His children 
and heirs of His Kingdom : and that He assists and 
preserves us from year to year and from day to day, 
so that we can say, * By the grace of God I am that 
which I am,' and still be silent and v»dthout a word 
of praise ? Omnis sjnrftiis laudet Dominum. 

Here, then, are five signs ; and if we can find 
them, at least in their beginnings, * our heart 
will not reprehend us, and we may have confidence 
with God.' Let us search for them in our hearts. 
The first is self-denial, the second is charity to 
others, the third is severity to ourselves, the fourth 
is self-mistrust, and the fifth is the spirit of praise. 
Where these are there is at least a faint outline of 
our Divine Master. 

And now I will only add two plain counsels, and 



THE SIGNS OF THE SACRED HEART. 265 

the first is this : Take nothing lower than the Heart 
of our Divine Lord as the measure and the rule of 
your own. Do not take any lower standard. Do not 
take the examples of men. Do not take maxims or 
motives of your own imagining. Set before you the 
Sacred Heart in its full and divine perfection. The 
Word of God took that Sacred Heart in order that 
we might know God; that He might come within 
the sphere of our intelligence, within the reach of 
our hearts, and unite our will to His will. There- 
fore let us first of all see whether our intelligence, 
our reason, our intellect be conformed to the intelli- 
gence of Jesus Christ. His intelligence w^as, like 
our own, a human and finite intelligence. He had 
also an infinite intelligence; therefore He said, 'I 
am the Truth.' And how are we to know this truth ? 
He has revealed it. And where is that revelation ? 
In the holy faith. Any man who knows only a part 
of that revelation, that is, only a fragment, or any 
number of fragments of that revelation, has not his 
reason nor his intelligence conformed to the reason 
and intelligence of Jesus Christ. He is narrowed in 
some part. But when his whole understanding and 
reason are illuminated by the knowledge of faith, 
then he is conformed to the intelligence of Jesus 
Christ ; the whole outline, and I will say the whole 



266 THE SIGNS OF THE SACRED HEART. 

circle, of his reason is full of light. We must, then, 
be perfect in the light of Catholic faith. Next as 
to our affections. The Sacred Heart is the most 
perfect Kingdom of God the Father. It is the sanc- 
tuary in which God the Son perpetually dwells, and 
it is also the most perfect work of the Holy Ghost. 
All the affections and all those pro-passions, as they 
are called — because the Church never speaks of 
passions when it speaks of the Sacred Heart — all 
the emotions, all those sensitive movements of our 
nature which were in Him, were all in perfect 
tranquillity, in perfect order, and in perfect unity. 
Therefore until our sensitive will, with all its af- 
fections and emotions, is subject to our superior 
will, which is our reason and our conscience, and 
until both the sensitive and the superior will in us 
are subject to the will of God, we shall not be con- 
formed to the Sacred Heart of our Lord. And, once 
more. His will is the law of ours ; and unless our 
will be conformed to our lot in life ; unless we accept 
it as coming from the will of God ; unless our will 
accepts our state in life, and does not chafe against 
it, because God in His providence has ordained it 
for us — I will even go farther, and say, unless we 
accept our state in grace as God has given it to us — 
we shall not be conformed to Him. Many people are 



TEE SIGNS OF THE SACRED HEART. 2G7 

all day long complaining and chafing that they fall 
into faults. True, indeed, they do ; and why ? They 
are impatient to be Saints for their own glory, or 
to be masters of themselves for their own consola- 
tion, or to be perfectly sanctified with all speed, that 
they may be delivered from the trouble of mortifying 
themselves ; and God in His wisdom measures out 
to them the grace which He sees to be sufficient for 
them if they are faithful ; and by leaving them long 
in that warfare He humbles them, by teaching them 
to know themselves ; and He makes the very sins 
which they once loved to be their chastisement, and 
to scourge them for those very faults. He turns their 
faults into a purgatory upon earth, and by suffering 
from them they are purified, and make their expiation. 
Until we have come to say even in this what our 
Lord said in the garden, ^ Not my will but Thine be 
done,' we are not conformed to the Sacred Heart. 
When we can say it, then we may hope that oar 
affections and our intelligence and our will are grow- 
ing towards His likeness. 

And the other counsel is this : Do not be cast 
down if, when you look into yourselves, you find your 
heart to be so deformed, so unlike to the Sacred Heart 
of Jesus. Anybody who really knows himself will 
find in his own heart what we read in the beginning, 



268 THE SIGNS OF THE SACRED HEART. 

^ a great deep,' and ' darkness on the face of the deep' 
— that is, a disorder and a confusion — but over all 
the Spirit of God moves * upon the face of the waters.' 
There is much in ourselves that we have never fa- 
thomed. The darkness hides much from ourselves. 
And the more we know ourselves the more at first 
we must be cast down and troubled, so as even to be 
altogether out of heart if we did not know that the 
more we are humbled before God the more safe we 
are, and the more surely His Presence is in us. If 
we find in ourselves all manner of windings and dou- 
bles, and that the heart is deceitful above all things, 
who shows all this to us ? who teaches us these 
truths ? It is the Spirit of God moving over our 
inward life, and by His light revealing us to our 
own selves. Therefore, when we come to see these 
things, we have no reason to be cast down ; it is the 
evidence and the certain proof that God is working 
in us of His own good will. And the way in which 
He works is this. When the Holy Spirit of God 
comes into the heart of a man. He enlightens him to 
know himself, but the Spirit of God is invisible ; 
while He is showing ourselves to our own conscience 
He hides Himself. And when He casts His light 
upon us, He shows to us, not the things that are 
pleasing to us, but the things that are displeasing 



THE SIGNS OF THE SACRED HEAPcT. 2G9 

to Him ; not those things which will please our love 
of self, but those things which wall displease and 
humble us. He does not show the conformity, if 
we have any, to the Sacred Heart, but the manifold 
deformities which are displeasing in God's sight. 

But perhaps you will say, * How can I ever be 
conformed to the Sacred Heart of Jesus ?' You can 
never transform yourselves into His likeness ; but 
there is One who can ; there is One who wdll trans- 
form you by His creating power. If you go to Him 
that made you, He can make all things new. Old 
things will pass away. If you say, 'Create in me a 
clean heart' — that is, ' Put forth Thine almighty power 
to make me once more as Thou didst make me in the 
beginning' — He will renew His own work. * If any 
man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature.' His 
work is not by halves, nor upon the surface, nor left 
imperfect, like something which is just refitted for the 
time, or made up again like new cloth on an old gar- 
ment. It is a new creation, made over again — ' a new 
creation, in which old things are passed away and all 
things are become new.' ' He that sitteth upon the 
Throne said, Behold, I make all things new\* The 
Precious Blood will cleanse away all sin; though it be 
red as scarlet, it shall be as white as snow ; though 
it be like crimson, it shall be as wool ; the almighty 



270 THE SIGNS OF THE SACEED HEAET. 

power of the Holy Ghost will purify all things 
as ' by the spirit of burning.' He will re-create all 
things and make them over again. As the spring- 
ing of the harvest or the putting out of the leaf in 
the forest is a new creation upon the stock of the old 
by the almighty power of God, so in body and soul 
and spirit you will be made new once more. 

Therefore, to make what I have said very practical, 
and to bring it nearer home, I will say this : Follow 
out and pursue your little faults. If you will correct 
your little faults, I was going to say your great ones 
will correct themselves ; for ' he that is faithful 
in that which is least is faithful in that which is 
greater.' Be w^atchful against spiritual sins, faults of 
omission, sins of the tongue, and thoughts against 
charity. And secondly. Fulfil your little duties, and 
your greater ones will take heed for themselves. A 
man that fulfils the lesser duties of charity, of hu-' 
mility, of piety, of fidelity, will have a conscience that 
grows more and more delicate; and a delicate con- 
science will take care of the great commandments 
of God. Then your ^ heart will not reprehend you,' 
^ and God, who is greater than your heart/ will keep 
you in the multitude of peace. Your many infirm- 
ities will be absolved in the Precious Blood of His 
Son, and if your ^ heart reprehend' you ^ not, then 



THE SIGNS OF THE SACKED HEART. 271 

have you confidence towards God;' and as S. John 
goes on in this place to say, ' Whatsoever we ask of 
Him we shall receive, because we keep His command- 
ments, and do those things which are pleasing in 
His sight.'^ 

» 1 S. John iii. 23. 



THE ETEENAL GLOKY OF THE SACRED 

HEART. 



THE ETERNAL GLORY OF THE SACRED 

HEART. 



The glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them. 
S. John xvii. 22. 

We have now reached the end of our thoughts about 
the glories of the Sacred Heart. We have seen it 
in His Incarnation, on which even the angels desh^e 
to look and cannot fathom. We have seen it in its 
radiance, which pervades the intellect and the heart 
by faith and love ; and in the manifold glories of 
His Presence in the Sacrament of the Altar ; and in 
the transformation of the world and the reign of His 
Vicar over the kingdoms of men, by which He con- 
forms them to His own will. Such are His glories 
in the order and time of grace. But there still re- 
mains the eternal glory of the Sacred Heart, when 
time shall be no more, and the elect shall be gathered, 
and the divine judgment shall have winnowed the 
world, and the heavenly court shall rest for ever in 
the vision of peace. Then shall all the blessed share 
in His glory. 



276 THE ETERNAL GLORY OF 

The glory of the Incarnate Son of God is twofold. 
He has the glory of God the Father, being con substan- 
tial with Him, and He has His own glory as Redeemer 
of the world. The eternal glory of God is His by 
right. He is Uhe brightness of His Father's glory.' 
The essential glory of the Ever-blessed Trinity is 
common to the Three coequal Persons. But He has 
also the glory of the Incarnation, by which He re- 
deemed the world. S. John says, ' We beheld His 
glory, the glory as of the Only -begotten of the 
Father.' But this is the glory of the Sacred Hu- 
manity of Jesus. His glory, therefore, is both in- 
finite and finite, essential and accidental ; and both 
unite in one Person, and are both alike His. 

Now it is of this glory that our Lord spoke when 
He said, ^ The glory which Thou hast given Me I have 
given to them.' All that is communicable of His glory 
He has given to us ; and our glory wdll flow for ever 
from the eternal fountain of His divine glory w^hich, 
being uncreated, He cannot give to any creature. 

The first glory that He has given to us is the 
gift of adoption. ' The Son of God was made Man 
that men might be made the sons of God;' by com- 
munication of His deified humanity to us, and by 
conformity to Himself. And this gift was bestowed 
upon us in our regeneration, by the infusion of the 



THE SACRED HEART. 277 

Holy Ghost. The superadded gift of Iho Spirit, 
which is not due to our manhood, nor is contained 
within its limits, but was, of God's free and sove- 
reign grace, given, over and above the natural per- 
fections of our humanity to Adam, is now in a 
measure, and with the penalties of the Fall still 
attaching to us, given to all who are born again of 
w^ater and of the Holy Ghost. 

And what is begun in our regeneration is ever 
growing as we are transformed into the likeness of 
our Divine Lord ; and this transformation is crowned 
and sealed in the perfect conformity of our whole 
humanity, glorified in soul and body, in the day 
when we shall see Him as He is. Then will be 
accomplished the work of the new creation, of Him 
who sitteth upon the throne, saying, ^Behold, I 
make all things new.'^ ' If any be in Christ he is 
a new creature : the old things are passed away ; 
behold, all things are become new.'^ The old crea- 
tion, with all its wounds and darkness and turbu- 
lence, will be gone for ever, and the new creation 
will be revealed in the resurrection by the glory of 
the sons of God. ' The first Adam was made into a 
living soul, the last Adam into a quickening spirit.'^ 
* The first man was of the earth, earthly ; the second 

1 Apoc. xxi. 5. 2 2 Cor. v. 17. ^ 1 Cor. xv. 45. 



278 THE ETERNAL GLORY OF 

Man from heaven, heavenly.' * As in Adam all die, 
so also in Christ all shall be made alive. Bnt every 
one in his own order : the firstfruits Christ ; then 
they that are Christ's, who have believed in His 
coming. Afterwards the end, when He shall have 
delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father, 
when He shall have brought to naught all princi- 
pality and power and virtue. For He must reign 
until He hath put all enemies under His feet.' 
* And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, 
then the Son also Himself shall be subject unto 
Him that put all things under Him, that God may 
be all in all.'^ 

The temporal reign of the Son will then be 
accomplished. This dead world and all its elements 
will be dissolved with burning heat. The new hea- 
ven and the new earth will be revealed. The Mys- 
tical Body will be gathered from warfare on earth, 
and from expiation in Purgatory, into the Paradise of 
God. All will be consummated ; the number of the 
elect will be full ; the last saint, the last penitent will 
have been gathered by the angels from the four winds 
of heaven. All will then be sealed with an eternal 
conformity to the Sacred Heart. And in that day, be- 
tween Him and us there will be no veil for ever : our 

■* 1 Cor. XV. 22-28. 



THE SACT.ED HEART. 279 

eyes will be no more ' holdeii that we cannot know 
Ilim.' They will be opened in that day when He shall 
drink the fruit of the Vine new with us in the King- 
dom of God. "We shall not then break any more the 
Bread of life in Sacraments ; but we shall see Him, 
the Substance and the Reality, the Word Incarnate, 
the King in His beauty ; and to all eternity we shall 
behold Him, and by and through Him we shall see 
God. The Sacrament of the Altar will be trans- 
figured into the presence, real, personal, and visible, 
of Jesus upon the throne of His glory. The taber- 
nacle of God in heaven will be open, and we shall 
see Him, with the piercing intuition of the light of 
glory ; for to the glorified intelligence all is trans- 
parent and luminous, as the light of noon. There 
will be seen, with open face and for ever, all that we 
believe in now — the eternal glory of the Sacred Heart, 
the Object of our divine worship, the Original to 
which we are made, the Fountain of eternal life. 

We will, then, end our thoughts about the Sacred 
Heart by contemplating its eternal glory in the midst 
of the hierarchies of heaven, encompassed by the 
multitude which no man can number of the blessed 
in eternal peace. In what will this glory consist ? 
So far as we can understand, it will be revealed in 
three ways: first, in itself; secondly, in its rela- 



289 THE ETERNAL glohy of 

tions to the Ever-blessed Trinity ; and lastly, in its 
relations to us. 

1. Let us first take its glory in itself. This also 
vrill consist of three things, which we believe here, but 
the blessed will see and understand in the Kingdom 
of God. First, the Sacred Heart is the purest of 
all God's created works. "When He made all things 
in the beginning. He made them very good. The 
dust or the slime of the earth was holy and pure, 
and of it He made the first Adam. The humanity 
and the heart of the first Adam had no taint, nor 
shadow of taint of sin. Yet it was of the earth, 
earthy. Man was made a little lower than the 
angels, because he was clothed in a body of dust. 
Yet the heart of Adam was without sin, and perfect 
in itself. But the Heart of the Second Adam was 
taken from the substance of a sinless Mother, who, 
by a special privilege of the Holy Ghost, had been 
herself exempted from the lav/ of sin, which had 
wrecked the world ; her substance had been sancti- 
fied and invested by the Holy Ghost from the first 
moment of her existence. Grace anticipated nature, 
and the Holy Ghost excluded its approach. The 
substance of the Sacred Heart was therefore taken 
of a substance already sanctified, and not only 
exempted from the taint of sin, but elevated above 



THE SACRED IIEAnT. 281 

the common lot of creatures by an immaculate con- 
ception and a special relation to tho Ever -blessed 
Trinity. She was already, in tlie predestination of 
God, the elect daughter of the Eternal Father, the 
Mother of the Son, the Spouse of the Holy Ghost. 
The Body of Jesus is therefore in its substance and 
structure and symmetry — the very flesh and blood, 
with all the wonderful organisation and properties 
of our humanity — the purest, noblest, and most per- 
fect that the Creator ever wrought for His own glory. 
When the lance pierced it, the most delicate and 
elaborate w^ork of divine wisdom and power was 
wrecked. When the stateliness and structure of a 
lily are crushed, all its beauty and perfection are 
revealed by contrast with its ruin ; when the side of 
Jesus was opened, the Heart of the Man of Sorrows, 
the Heart that wept in Bethany and yearned ovei; 
Jerusalem, revealed all its love. 

This Heart, with all its most precious Blood, 
hypostatically united in its assumption to the Person 
of the Eternal Word, is the most perfect work of the 
new creation, and the new creation is the most 
perfect work of the almighty wisdom of God. 

But further : this deified Heart of our manhood 
was quickened and animated by the most perfect soul 
that ever proceeded out of the will of God. In 



282 THE ETERNAL GLORY OF 

the order of the Incarnation — not of time but of 
reason — the Eternal Son assumed this human soul 
by uniting Himself with its intelligence, and thereby 
also with its love and with its will. The divine nature 
assumed our manhood by that part of its perfection 
which is nearest to God. His own image is in our 
intelligence. The human soul of Jesus w^as in all 
things like the soul of the first Adam, having affec- 
tions and sympathies, and capacities of sorrow and 
of bliss, with a will free and imperial to command 
obedience in all its movements. 

Moreover this perfect human soul was sanctified 
by a twofold sanctification. It was sanctified by 
union with the Person of the Eternal Word. The 
uncreated sanctity of God thereby pervaded it. It 
w^as anointed with the Godhead of the Son. For ^ He 
(the Christ) anointed Himself, anointing as God 
with His owai divinity, and (being) anointed as Man ; 
forasmuch as the Godhead is the unction of the 
manhood.'^ It was sanctified also by the infinite 
sanctity of the Holy Ghost, which dwelt in it by 
habitual grace and virtues and gifts and fruits and 
beatitudes. And the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the 
human heart of flesh and blood taken from His 
Mother, with all its pure and perfect affections; 
* S. John Dam. lib. iii. c. iii. Be Fid. Ortliod. 



THE SACRED HEART. 283 

anointed by this twofold sanctification, infinite and 
finite, of the Eternal Son and of the Eternal Spirit. 
Such is and ever will be in eternity the Sacred 
Heart of Jesus, with all its natural, supernatural, 
and divine perfections ; with all its purities and 
sanctities and glories. If ^ the just shall shine 
forth like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father,' 
what shall be the splendours of the Sacred Heart? 
It is this that makes His throne white with a sur- 
passing glory. In the midst of the heavenly court, 
at the head of the new creation, in all the abysses 
of its light and beauty, there will be one greater 
light ruling the eternal day — the Sacred Heart, 
resplendent with intensity of all created and un- 
created glory. 

2. The second glory of the Sacred Heart is in 
its relations to the Ever-blessed Trinity. It is the 
eternal bond between the uncreated and the creature. 
God has many kingdoms ; but of all, the highest 
and the amplest is the Sacred Heart. From all 
eternity, God dwelt in His own immensity. He in- 
habited His own glory; and He rested in His own 
bliss. The mutual knowledge and love of the Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost constitute the divine glory and 
the divine beatitude. But the charity of God willed 
not to be contained within the limits of His own 



281 THE ETERNAL GLOEY OF 

bliss. He, of His own free will and out of His own 
divine love, called into existence all orders of created 
things, that there might be out of Himself an object 
of His complacency : a friend whom He might love, 
by w^iom He might be loved again. Therefore He 
created man to His own likeness for His ow^n glory 
and for our bliss. But even this did not suffice : it 
was not enough that w^e should exist and that He 
should have, out of Himself, the love of His crea- 
tures ; He willed to identify Himself with them ; 
He therefore took upon Him a created nature. God 
the Son assumed a created manhood into the unity 
of His Person ; and the created and the uncreated 
were joined together by a personal and eternal bond. 
The immensity of the divine nature and glory met 
the highest perfection of human nature in the unity 
of the Person of the Incarnate Word. The w4iole 
divine and uncreated glory was in contact, and more 
than in contact, with the w^hole world of created 
existence in one only point ; and that point of con- 
tact is the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It became, there- 
fore, the most glorious of the kingdoms of the 
Eternal Father. The Father is not incarnate, but 
He is consubstantial with the Incarnate Son. He 
w^ho inhabiteth eternity, and is present in all things 
that are made, rational and irrational, dw^ells by a 



TnE SACKED HEART. 285 

special presence of love and complacency in the Sa- 
cred Heart of His Son. He reigns in it and over it. 
By it His will is ever obeyed ; upon it His laws are 
written. Never w^as the Father so obeyed as by the 
Son in whom He is well pleased. Never was the 
Father so loved, adored, and praised as by the bea- 
tific acts of the Sacred Heart. 

But it is more than the Kingdom of the Father. 
It is the special sanctuary in which the great High- 
Priest has redeemed the world. In it He for ever 
glorified God by a w^orship of infinite humility and 
fervour. In the moment of the Incarnation a human 
heart loved God with all its strength and saw God 
wdth all the intensity of beatific vision. When by 
the will of the Father and the co-operation of the 
Holy Ghost the Son assumed the vestments of His 
Priesthood, they assisted in vesting the great High- 
Priest for His eternal sacrifice. He put on our 
humanity as the alb and the stole of His sacerdotal 
ofBce. And in that sacerdotal vesture He will str.n.l 
before God for ever, assisted by those whom He ha^ 
made a kingdom of priests unto the Father. But 
the Sacred Heart is the victim as well as the 
priest. He is the spotless Lamb, the Lamb that 
will lie to all eternity as slain upon the altar. And 
that altar is also the Sacred Heart, in which He is 



286 ^ THE ETERNAL GLORY OF 

for ever saying, *Not My will but Thine be clone.' 
It is likewise the golden censer in the hands of our 
great High-Priest, from which the frankincense in a 
cloud of praise and thanksgiving goes up for ever 
before the eternal throne. Though, when all is ful- 
filled, He will no more offer sacrifice nor exercise the 
priestly office, nevertheless He will be for ever the 
eternal High-Priest reigning in the glory of the 
new creation redeemed with His Divine Blood. ^ 

But once more : the Sacred Heart will be to all 
eternity the most perfect creation and the most glo- 
rious temple of the Holy Ghost. It was ^ conceived 
by the Holy Ghost,' and from that instant it was 
inhabited and sanctified by the Third Person of the 
Holy Trinity, w4io not only replenished it with all 
created grace, but united Himself to it by a substan- 
tial union. As in all the just the Holy Ghost 
dwells not as the fragrance only of the ointment, but 
as the very substance, so He dwells in fulness in 
the Head of the Mystical Body, and in the Heart from 
which its eternal life is derived. The Sacred Heart 
was always in the Beatific Vision in right of the 
Eternal Son ; but the Soul of Jesus has also the 
light of glory from the Holy Ghost, ^ with which it 

° Vasquez, disp. Lkxxv. c. iii. 30, torn. vi. p. 577. 
* S. Thorn, p. iii. q. x. a,, ii. iv. 



THE SACRED HEART. 287 

beliolcls the uncreated Nature and threefold person- 
ality of God. ^ 

Such, then, is the essential glory of the Sacred 
Heart, in ^Yhich the uncreated charity of God in 
infinite perfection dwells ; in which the created 
charity of God is poured forth in fulness, without 
measure; in an immensity which cannot be conceived. 
The glory and the bliss of eternity will be measured 
by charity and by the merit of every soul. "What, 
then, will be for ever the glory of the deified body of 
Jesus and the glory of His Name, which is above 
every name ?^ If one drop of the Blood of the Sacred 
Heart was enough to redeem the v/orld, it was also 
enough to obtain for it an immensity of eternal glory. 

Therefore the whole court of heaven to all eter- 
nity will worship the Sacred Heart, saying, * Holy, 
Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and who is, 
and who is to come;' and they shall give ^ glory and 
honour and benediction to Him that sitteth upon the 
throne, who liveth for ever and ever;' and ^they shall 
adore Him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast 
their crowns before the throne, saying. Thou art 
worthy, Lord, to receive glory and honour and 



^ Petav. De Incarn. lib. xi. c. iv. 8. Melchior Canus, Loci 
Theol. lib. xiii. p. 438. 

^ Vasquez, disp. Ixxix. c. i. ii. S. Thorn, p. in. q. xlix. a. vi. 



288 THE ETERNAL GLOrvY OF 

power, because Thou hast created all things, and for 
Thy will they were and have been created. '^^ 

0. But there remains yet another glory in the 
relations of the Sacred Heart to us. I am not speak- 
ing of what it is to us now in this state of warfare, 
but of what it will be to all eternity. It is now the 
Heart of our Kinsman, our Brother, our Friend, our 
Saviour, our Eedeemer, of our Lord and of our God, 
of the Good Physician full of healing, of the Good 
Shepherd full of loving care. All this He is to us 
now in the multiplicity of our needs and in all the 
manifold activity of His grace. All our life long we 
are eliciting fresh revelations of His love : testing 
by experience new evidences of His sympathy, and 
tasting new gifts of His sweetness. What we are 
learning here will be known by a direct and eternal 
knowledge there. The Sacred Heart will be to us in 
the Kingdom of His glory all that it has ever been 
in the time of our warfare upon earth, with this only 
difference : what we know now in part we shall know 
there even as we are known ; what we have here 
believed there we shall see ; what we have hoped Yve 
shall enjoy ; what we have tasted as it were by drops 
falling like manna in the wilderness we shall then 
enjoy in abiding fulness. We shall rest in that land 

20 Apoc. iv. 8-11 



THE SACilED riEAr.T. 289 

wliicli is now far ofl', in the realm of tlie King in His 
beauty. In that promised land every man shall sit 
down under his vine and under his fig-tree. The 
Sun of Bliss shall stand at eternal noon over the 
land of promise, in the Paradise of God. Our rela- 
tions there with the Sacred Heart shall be, not as 
now in the twilight and variations of our infirmity, 
but intuitive, conscious, and changeless. 

We shall gaze upon it as the centre of the hea- 
venly court, of the hierarchy of Saints and Angels, 
of Thrones and Powers, of Cherubim and Seraphim, 
of the Mystical Body, in which shall be glorified every 
Saint, from Abel the just to the last who has washed 
his robes in the Blood of the Heart of God. Then 
will be revealed the mystery of that unity against 
which the gates of hell have never prevailed; of that 
indissoluble mystery of Jesus v/ith all His members 
which from earth has risen to the throne of the 
Eternal. We shall wonder then, not that it has 
never perished, but that we ever were afraid. 

But there is still another glory of the Sacred 
Heart. It is the Fountain of Life. It is the Spring- 
head of the Eiver of the Water of Life. The mission 
of the Holy Ghost in time flows through the Incar- 
nate Son and from His Sacred Hearfc. All the mys- 
teries of the new creation , in the external operations 

u 



290 THE ETEBNAL GLORY OF 

of the Spirit in the Church, and in the internal opera- 
tions of the Spirit in the soul, — all come from the 
Sacred Heart. ^ The Spirit breatheth where He 
will, and thou hearest His voice ; but thou know- 
est not whence He cometh or whither He goeth.'^^ 
Nicodemus did not know, but we do know, whence 
He cometh. Jesus 'breathed on them, and said, 
Receive ye the Holy Ghost.'^^ He comes through the 
Word made Flesh, and therefore from the Sacred 
Heart. Omnia per CorJesu: all things come through 
the Heart of Jesus. From the beginning of the 
world the Lamb was slain, and the Sacred Heart 
was pierced. The whole flood and inundation of the 
Spirit which has healed the w^orld has descended 
from the wound in the side of Jesus. The Water 
and the Blood became the rivers of salvation to Adam 
and to Eve and to jibel and to Enoch and to the 
Patriarchs, to Job in Madian, to Melchisedech king 
of Salem, to the tribes of Israel, to every soul in 
every age and in every land and tongue to whom 
salvation came. As every drop of the rain which 
softens the earth, and every ray of light that warms 
it, comes from the Eternal Goodness, so every grace 
of truth, every inspiration, every impulse, every gleam 
of faith, every sting of conscience, every tear of 
" S. Jolin iii. 8. ^^ Hy^ xx. 22. 



THE SACRED HEART. 291 

contrition, has come through the Sacred Heart. And 
in the glory of the Father all the blessed shall for 
ever see the Fountain and the Head of that great 
stream of life, of that m^ighty flood of Hhe multitude 
of peace' and of ' the multitude of sweetness' which 
came down upon them here in all the manifold vicis- 
situdes of earth, when they did not seek it and whence 
they did not know. How great will be the joy and 
the bliss in that eternal day w^hen the tabernacle of 
God shall be opened, and we shall see the sanctuary 
out of which the waters flowed to us. We shall then 
share in the bliss of the Good Shepherd in the day 
when He is in the midst of His sheep ; when His 
v^hole flock shall have been told for the last time and 
the number is full for all eternity ; all the lost found, 
and those that were dead alive for evermore. If there 
be joy in heaven over one sinner doing penance, 
what joy shall there be when all the innocent and 
all the penitent shall rejoice in the great harvest 
home, and be glorified together. 

But there still remain mysteries of the Sacred 
Heart which here at least we shall never reach. 
We have but gazed upon the surface of this multitude 
of lights. How can it be that He who so loves all 
men as to die for them shall be infinitely blessed, 
even though He know how many are still lost? 'He 



292 THE ETEENAL GLORY OF 

who iiumbereth the stars and calleth them all by 
their names' knows every soul for whom He died, 
both those who are saved and those who perish. 
His love for the lost will yet remain, for He is im- 
mutable ; but His holiness and His justice are also 
changeless. "We cannot reason of these things. The 
intellect may try to square this circle, but the heart 
is unpersuaded. We cannot tell how the Sacred 
Heart can in unclouded bliss contemplate the three- 
and-thirty years on earth, and all the sweetness of 
Bethlehem and Nazareth, and Bethany and the corn- 
fields, and Tabor and the guest-chamber, and Emmaus 
and the sea of Tiberias, while Jerusalem and Calvary 
are not forgotten in the vivid light, not of memory 
but of knowledge. And so with us. In the full and 
personal recognition of all the blessed, how shall 
our bliss be perfect though many shall not be there ? 
We cannot tell; save only that we shall be like Him, 
and our conformity to His Sacred Heart will make 
His joys and ours to be the same, and His perfect 
bliss will perfect ours ; and in diverse measures of 
beatitude all will be full, and Vv^here all are full 
there is no pain of loss, no desire unfulfilled. And 
yet this is but to darken counsel with words of little 
understanding. In monte Domini videhitiir ; and till 
we are with Him in the mountain, we shall never 



THE SACRED HEART. 293 

see or understand. Then we shall intuitively see 
that the Sacred Heart is the source of all bliss and 
glory, and 'in His light we shall see light/ 

The last crowning gift to us is the light of glorj\ 
No eye of flesh can see God ; no intellect by the powers 
of nature can gaze upon the Beatific Vision. No man 
in the order of nature can see God and live. Even 
the prophet Isaias, when the glory of the Lord filled 
the temple, cried out in fear, ' Woe is me, ... a man 
of unclean lips ; . . . and I have seen with my eyes the 
King, the Lord of Hosts. '^^ The first human heart 
that saw God was the Heart of Jesus ; and in Him 
and through Him all His members receive a share 
in His divine intuition. Their intellect is elevated 
to the vision of God, and is likewise glorified by the 
light of the Holy Ghost, so as to receive a super- 
natural power of sight. We shall see the eternal 
uncreated Unity, the Essence, which is Itself, and of 
Itself ; the Three coequal Persons, alike in all things 
save only Their relations : alike in nature, wisdom, 
power, holiness, purity, justice, mercy : distinct 
in Paternity, Filiation, and Procession. And in the 
light of that Beatific Vision will be seen the glories 
of the Incarnation, of the assumption of manhood 
into God, of the two perfect natures in the one 

1^ Isaias vi, 5, 



294 THE ETEBNAL GLORY OF 

only Person, God and Man — the deifying and the 
deified — and the relations of the Father and of the 
Son and of the Holy Ghost to the Sacred Heart of 
the Word made Flesh. How these things shall be 
seen God only knoweth, and they who before us 
have entered into the land of vision. But as the 
firmament and the sea and the earth, with all their 
glories, are visible to our eye, so the vision of God 
shall be seen with all its abysses of uncreated light 
by the glorified intelligence. We shall see God by 
the light of glory wholly and yet not as a whole, be- 
cause of His infinity ; but the Sacred Heart we shall 
see wholly and altogether by the intuition of love 
and the experience of sweetness, save only where its 
beauty and its glory ascend beyond the finite into the 
infinite, beyond the Manhood into the Godhead of 
Jesus, who is ' most high in the glory of God the 
Father.' 

Such, then, very dimly and as in a glass, is the 
eternal glory of the Sacred Heart in its threefold 
relations to Itself, to the Ever-blessed Trinity, and to 
us ; and such It will be for ever in the glory of God 
and of His eternal Kingdom. The heavenly city, 
where God shall dwell with His blessed, has no need 
of any light to lighten it, for the glory of God and 
of the Sacred Heart are the light thereof. 



THE SACKED HEAPcT. 295 

We can go no further. Perhaps I have abeady 
ventured too far. Into this third heaven no man can 
ascend ; and if he were caught up into it, he could 
not tell the things which it is unlawful even for those 
who have seen them to utter. And for those who 
have never seen more than the faint refracted radi- 
ance of glories that are beyond the horizon of our 
dark world, it is better to rest in silence and holy 
fear and the contemplation of implicit faith. 

And after looking upward into this world of light 
it is hardly possible, all at once, to turn back to the 
thoughts of penance and warfare or of the world. It 
is good for us to be here, not to build tabernacles of 
dreamy imagination, but to strengthen ourselves with 
a more penetrating sense of the presence of God and 
of our intimate relations to the Word Incarnate. The 
Sacred Heart in its very substance is glorified ; and 
He has promised to change the body of our humilia- 
tion into the likeness of the body of His glory. If 
the body of this death in which we suffer shall then 
be so glorious, how ought we to watch over its sancti- 
fication now. The Precious Blood was shed for it. 
Ihe very substance of our flesh and blood is there- 
fore sacred. Every sense and every member of our 
body belong to the Sacred Heart. Shall I, then, take 
them and make them members of the world or of sin ? 



296 THE ETERNAL GLORY OF 

The body is not for sin, ^ but for the Lord, and the 
Lord for the body.'-^* 'He who is joined to the Lord 
is one spirit.' * Know you not that your members 
are the temple of the Holy Ghost, who is in yon, 
whom you have from God, and you are not your 
own ? For you are bought with a great price. 
Glorify and bear God in your body.'^''' If you are 
saved, every hair of your head will be glorified." 

But if our body is consecrated to the Sacred 
Heart, how much more our hearts also. 'Blessed 
are the clean in heart, for they shall see God.' But 
no heart will be clean but such as is cleansed by 
w^atchfulness, penance, mortification, and habitual 
communion with the Heart of our Divine Master. 
Out of the heart come all evil things. But for the 
most part they find their way there first through the 
open windows of sense. The eyes and the ears and 
the lips and the hands and the feet are the channels 
by w^hich the reason and the conscience and the 
memory and the heart are defiled. Lift up your eyes 
to the glory of the Sacred Heart in the vision of 
peace. Then turn inwardly upon yourselves and 
consecrate your hearts to Him, that every a0*ection 
and desire and motive and intention and thought 
may be pure as He is pure. 

J* 1 Cor. vi. 13. ^^ II). 17, 19, 20. 



THE SACRED HEART. 297 

The more you contemplate the glories of Jesus 
the more you will say or long to dare to say, ^ To me 
to live is Chiist, to die is gain.'^^ ' I have a desire 
to be dissolved and to be with Christ, w4iich is a 
thing by far the better' ^^ than the fairest, sweetest, 
purest, noblest happiness on earth. ' For we know 
that if our earthly house of this habitation be 
dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not 
made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in 
this also we groan, desiring to be clothed upon with 
our habitation which is from heaven.' * For w^e also 
who are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened : 
because we would not be unclothed, but clothed upon, 
that that which is mortal may be swallowed up by 
life.'i^ 

We are but trying to look upon the vision which 
the beloved disciple w^ho lay upon the Sacred Heart 
alone was permitted to see. 

^ And he showed me a river of water of life, 
clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God 
and of the Lamb.' ^ And there shall be no curse any 
more : but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall 
be in ifc, and fiis servants shall serve Him. And 
they shall see His face, and His name shall be on 
their foreheads.' ' I am Alpha and Omega, the First 

»« Philip, i. 21. 1- lb. 23. ^« 2 Co:-, v. 1, 2, 4. 



298 ETERNAL GLORY OF THE SACRED HEART. 

and the Last, the Beginning and the End.' ^ Blessed 
are they that wash their robes in the Blood of the 
Lamb.' ' I am the Eoot and Stock of David, the 
Bright and Morning Star.' ' ki\di the Spirit and the 
Bride say, Come. And he that heareth, let him say, 
Come. And he that thirsteth, let him come : and he 
that will, let him take the water of life freely.' ^^ 

If you would find the Fountain of the Water 
of Life and the glories of the Eternal Throne, on 
which the Lord of the Sacred Heart sits and reigns 
for ever, go into any sanctuary where the light burns 
silently before the tabernacle. Kneel there and 
cover your face. Jesus is there, and the Ever- 
blessed Trinity, and the Vision of Peace, and the 
heavenly court, and the Kingdom of His glory. 
^» Apoc. xxii. 1, 3, 4, 13, 11, 16, 17. 



INDEX, 



Abraham, 111. 
Absence, sensible, 156. 
Absolution, sole source of, 180. 
Adam, the first, 10, 54, 178, 277, 

280; the Second, 178. 
Adoption, gift of, 276. 
Agreda, Mary of, 116. 
Alacoque, B. Margaret Mary, 

46. 
Altar, sacrifice of the, 141. 
Angela of Foligno, the Blessed, 

116. 
Anselm, S., 222. 
Antichrist, 3. 
Antony, vision of S., 252. 
ApolKnaris, 4. 
Apollinarists, 42. 
Apostles, 80. 

Aquinas, S. Thomas, 18, 85. 
Arians, 4. 
Athanasius creed of S., 6 ; 

quoted, 17, 23, 37, 192. 
Auctorem Fidei, the Bull, 25, 

44. 
Augustine, S., 37, 117. 
Authority, divine, 80. 
Aversion from God, 197. 

Baptism, 2X2, 221, 234. 
Beatitudes, 209. 
Beauty, vision of, 170. 
Bellarmine, 15. 
Bernaid, S., 107. 



Bethlehem, 171. 

Blindness, three causes of, 144 

Blood of God, 9, 21. 

Books, 124. 

Bread, worshippers of, 27. 

Calvin, 5. 

Carelessness, 126. 

Catharine of Genoa, S., 116. 

Cathedrals of England, 156. 

Charity, essence of God, 60. 

Charles, S., 235. 

Children, 199, 225. 

Church, submission to the, 124 ; 
of England, 6. 

Circumscription, 148. 

Communion of Saints, 88. 

Confessions, good, 226. 

Confirmation, 212. 

Conformation of the saint, 196. 

Conformity to the Sacred Heart, 
195, 202, 211, 231, 247. 

Conscience, 249. 

Constantinople, council of, 13. 

Conversion to God, 201. 

Corea, martyrs of, 122. 

Council of ConstantinoiDle, 13 ; 
of Ephesus, 24 ; Fifth Gene- 
ral, 40, 44 ; of Toledo, 8. 

Creed of S. Athanasius, 6. 

Cyril of Alexandria, S., 17. 

David, perfections of, 11. 



800 



INDEX. 



Death, eternal, 213. 

Deathbeds, 137. 

Deformity, 219, 250. 

Deification, 195 ; of human na- 
ture, 16, 33. 

De Lugo, 19, 34. 

Devils, faith of, 107. 

Devotion, 83. 

Dionysius, Areopagites, 191. 

Disciples of the Sacred Heart, 
160. 

Distinction of right from wrong, 
52. 

Dogma, 78 ; light of, 161-. 

Drink, 229. 

Dust of worldliness, 125. 

Earnestness, 126. 

Earth, the new, 278. 

Edmund, S., 224. 

Education, secular, 242. 

Elect, the, 278. 

Elymas, the magician, 145. 

England, Christianity of, 6 ; 

public opinion of, 25. 
Ephesus, Council of, 25. 
Essence of God, 60. 
Eternity, 11. 
Eutychians, 42. 
Evil, familiarity wdth, 224. 
Existence of God, 51. 

Face of Jesus Christ, 195, 220. 
Faith, 105 ; of devils, 107. 
Fascination, 240. 
Fathers, 231, 242. 
Flesh of God, 16. 
Foligno, B. Angela of, 116. 
.Foreknowledge of Jesus, 133. 
Franzelin, Cardinal, quoted, 32, 

40, 43. 
Friendship, 231, 239. 
Fruits of the Holy Ghost, 209. 

Genesis, the Book of, 11. 



Germany, faith of, 6, 93. 

Gertrude, S., 116. 

Glory, essential, 54 ; light of 

293. 
Gluttony, 229. 
God, aversion from, 197 ; blood 

of, 9, 21 ; conversion to, 201 ; 

existence of, 51 ; essence of, 

60 ; flesh of, 16 ; heart of, 47 ; 

image of, 56 ; vision of, 170. 
Gravity, 126. 
Growth of spiritual life, 225. 

Heart of God, 47 ; of Jesus. 

12; of man, 58, 202, 249. 
Heathenism, 58. 
Heaven, the new, 278. 
Hell, 107. 

Hereford, S. Thomas of, 237. 
Heresy, 4, 23. 
Humility of Jesus, 205. 
Hypostatic union, 10, 59. 

Idols, 56. 

Bdephonsus, S., 38. 

Illumination, 118, 125. 

Image of God, oQ. 

Incarnation, truth of the, 3 ; act 
of, 16 ; doctrine of, 7 ; fitness 

^ of, 53. 

Incredulity, 121. 

Infallibility of the Church, 131. 

Infinity, 11. 

Innocence, baptismal. 221, 228. 

Innocent, transformation of the, 
196. 

Instruction, secular, 242. 

Intellect as judge, 249 ; stupe- 
faction of, 125. 

Ireland, 95. 

Jansenists, 24, 42. 
John, S., Evangelist, 3, 198. 
John, S., Damascene, 18, 32, 37, 
192. 



INDEX. 



801 



Judgment, day of, 227. 
Judicial blindness, 145. 
Jurisdiction, source of, 180. 

Knowledge, 77; five degrees of, 
105, 124 ; of ourselves, 234. 

Latria, worship of, 40. 
Lenity, 255. 
Levity, 126. 
Liberty, true, 177. 
License of speech, 232. 
Life, spiritual, 225. 
Light of glory, 293. 

Manifestations of our Lord, 

119, 171. 
Margaret Mary, Blessed, 46, 

123. 
Martyrdom, 252. 
Maiy, the Blessed Virgin, 15, 

24, 29, 87, 281. 
Mary Magdalen, 203. 
Men-pleasers, 253. 
Mistrust of self, 200. 
Monophy sites, 4, 42. 
Monothelites, 4. 
Mortification, 203. 
Mothers, 231, 242. 

Natures, the two, 11. 
Nazareth, 171. 
Nestorius, 4, 15, 38. 
Nicodemus, 146. 

Omission, sins of, 236, 257. 
Orders, religious, 208. 

Parents, 231, 242. 

Paul, S., 120. 

Penance, sacrament of, 235. 

Penitent, reformation of the, 

196, 247. 
Perfection, 193, 211, 215. 
Perrone, 40. 



Petavius, 32, 39. 
Peter, S., 121, 179. 
Phantasiastae, 151. 
Philip Neri, S , 250. 
Philosophers, 225. 
Pistoia, synod of, 25, 43. 
Pius the Ninth, 46, 180. 
Pontigny, abbey of, 122. 
Praise, spirit of, 262. 
Prayer, 238. 

Presence, the perpetual, 143. 
Purgatory, the Church in, 185, 
211. 

Keformation, the so-called, 5 ; 

of the penitent, 196, 247. 
Right and wrong, 52. 

Saint Antony, 252 ; Aquinas, 
Thomas, 18, 85 ; Athanasius, 
6, 17, 23, 37, 192 ; Augustine, 
37, 117 ; Bernard, 107 ; Catha- 
rine of Genoa, 116 ; Charles, 
235; Edmund, 224; Gertrude, 
116; Ildephonsus, 38; John 
Damascene, 18, 32, 37, 192 ; 
Paul, 120 ; Peter, 121, 179. 

Saint, conformation of the, 196. 

Salvation, 195. 

Samaritans, 76. 

Satan, 177, 229, 250. 

Saul, 120. 

Sceptics, 225. 

Schools, secular, 242. 

Self-denial, 251. 

Self-knowledge, 234. 

Self-murder, 213. 

Self-pleasers, 253. 

Severity, 256. 

Shallowness of heart, 126, 131. 

Sin, 125 ; essence of, 197. 

Socinus, 5. 

Soldiers of Jesus Christ, 212. 

Sorrows of our Lord, 133, 200. 

Speech, license of, 232. 



302 



INDEX. 



Stupefaction of the intellect, 

125. 
Submission to the Church, 124. 
Switzerland, faith of, 26. 

Temptations, 112, 229. 
Theandric, 14. 

Thirst of the Sacred Heart, 135. 
Thomas Aquinas, S., 18, 85, 

119. 
Thomas Becket, S., 122. 
Thomas of Hereford, S., 237. 
Thomassinus, 38. 
Toledo, council of, 9. 
Tournely, 39. 

Transformation, signs of, 248. 
Transuhstantiation, 149. 
Trent, council of, 143, 147. 
Trust in self, 260. 
Truth, 26 ; defences of, 29. 



Unction of the Sacred Human- 
ity, 19. 
Unitarianism, 5. 
Unity of the Church, 154. 
Unsuspiciousness, 159. 

I Vicar of Christ, 179, 181. 
Virgin, the Blessed, 10, 15, 24, 

29, 87, 281. 
Vision, the beatific, 293 ; of 
faith, 169. 

Will of man, 64. 

Wills, the two, of our Lord, 12. 

Worldliness, 125. 

Worship, divine. 21 ; of latria, 

40. 
Wurzburg theology, 40. 



THE END. 



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